[Robbie_Phillips]

Sorry for the late reply - yeah no worries

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NEW SPONSORS!!!
4 July 2012, 8:05 pm

GO OATY!

Hey Guys

Big news for Natalie and I! We have both acquired a fun and exciting new sponsor to further support our climbing careers. This new sponsor of ours is an Edinburgh based company that many of you may have heard off due to their massively popular snacks, the Stoats Porridge Bars!

Me and Natalie first became fans of these oaty bars whilst training at EICA: Ratho. We are always on the lookout for tasty healthy snacks to eat during our training sessions that provide optimum energy release throughout the whole day as well as keeping us light and not too full. The Stoats Porridge Bars quickly became our food of choice and have been fueling our training sessions ever since.

The story of Stoats is of two young lads that hitting music festivals with their mates and burdened with the constant lack of a healthy snack that they could take with them that would keep them going strong all day long. This was when the first idea of Stoats arrived, initially as them selling Porridge out of their mobile porridge bar, it grew and grew with new ideas for products and eventually they struck gold with their immense idea of a porridge bar!

These days there is yet more to the company than just porridge and bars! They sell all sorts of goodies including oat based breakfast cereal, oatcakes and cute little mini porridge bars.

Oaty Beta!

As with many cereals, the health benefits of oats are widely talked about, with new research being published on a regular basis. It is now known that oats can help stabilise blood sugar levels with their low GI, slow release energy – this makes them particularly good for those at risk of type 2 diabetes. They are also a rich source of beta glucan – a type of fibre that is known to lower cholesterol and can reduce the risk factors associated with coronary heart disease.



Nat and I are really excited to be involved with such a unique product and innovative company and are really looking forward to bringing tasty oaty goodness to the climbing community.

ROBZ OUT

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Yorkshire is “Supercool”
23 July 2012, 12:06 am

Hey Guys!

The last 3 days has been fun from start to finish. Nat and I have been away on a short trip to the UK sport climbing mecca of Yorkshire. As much as we love hopping on planes and jet setting off to sun baked crags in central Europe, we still find ourselves coming back to the land of puddings, rippers and grumpy farmers. To be frank, you can’t go that wrong when you’ve got a 30minute drive radius from three of the biggest and best limestone crags in the country (Kilnsey, Malham and Gordale).

I have spent only a few days in Kilnsey and that was a number of years ago now. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to visit this time but I’m looking forward to future trips. Malham is where I have spent most of my time in Yorkshire and I can’t quite get enough of it. Everytime I go there I find new routes that entice me, keeping that flame for Malham burning. Until this trip I had never actually climbed at Gordale crag, but if you read on you’ll hear that I am glad I didn’t leave it any longer.

Day 1 – Malham on the Upper Tier

Three of us (myself, Nat and Will Carroll) drove down on the Friday afternoon to make it there by the evening. It was a leisurely journey with a few hours spent in Penrith dining at a very nice Italian restaurant Will had recommended. The following day we were meeting up with pro photographer and film maker Jen Randall as she was wanting to film Nat for an upcoming climbing movie. As well as Jen, we were also meeting up with some old friends Chris and Catherine Speakman who are lucky enough to live in the village of Settle only 10minutes drive from Malham!!!

Nat climbing "L'obsession" (7c+) - Photo by Will Caroll As we were there for only a short while we decided to do quicker ticks on easier routes (that and everything else was wet). We headed up to the Upper tier and attempted our first routes of the trip, “Herbie” (7c+) for myself and Nat, and “Obsession” (7b+) for Will. I had a good onsight burn on “Herbie” falling off high into the final crux whilst Nat’s on her flash attempt was similar, falling only a couple of moves lower down. We both busted it out on our second attempt without much trouble, both climbing it in very different styles:

Nat – Slow, precise and completely statico!!!

Robbie – Fast, fluid and definitely not static

It’s crazy watching Nat climb the same moves as me but in her own unique style. When I climb dynamically, she is generally very controlled. A good example of this was half-way through the crux on “Herbie” – you take a positive, fat pinch with your right hand and pull through to an even better pinch with your left. For me this was a big move and one that I preferred to do quickly… Nat just latched that pinch with vice-like grip and continued to lock slowly from straight arm to a completely full lock before she slowly release her left hand and eased it up to reach the next pinch with as much control and precision as a robotic arm in one of those Xsara Picasso adverts (I think she’s from outer space – that or an android from the future).

Jen + Nat filming - Photo by Will Caroll Will had already started battling with “Obsession” (7b+) alongside Chris who had joined us for the day. Nat and I moved onto our next climb for the day, a spicy little number recommended by a fellow climber at the crag, “L’Obsession” (7c+). I was keen to try my hand at onsighting this as I had made quite a good attempt on “Herbie”. Unfortunately I didn’t quite make it, I fell off on the last move of the crux (but only just). After climbing through and to the top I feel that if I had made the move I would actually have done the climb from there, but hey ho, thats just how the ball rolls in this old game we call onsight climbing.

It was Nat’s turn now, I gave her as much beta as I could and she went for the flash attempt – this I think was the best climbing I saw all weekend! Nat cruised the crux making it look about 6a and then pathed up to the last clip at which point she got confused, I forgot what holds she was to use and she kind of gave up. She had an amazing burn on the flash, it’s the best climbing I have seen her do at Malham and everyone was super impressed. Feeling as though I better do something quick before she burns me off again, I mustered up some psyche and quickly despatched “L’obsession” on my second try (it felt a lot easier after watching Nat climb it so well). Nat had a second go burn on it but unfortunately messed up then end more due to lack of skin than anything else in my opinion.

It was time to call it a day, so we headed back to camp and rested well before tomorrows climbing…

Day 2 – Malham Filming

Today was not my day, this was mostly dedicated to Nat and her film crew  Jen Randall and Dom Bush filmed Nat climbing “L’obsession” (on the send) early on then got some good footage of her attempting “Toadall Recall” (8a). I attempted to retro-flash this route placing the draws as my first route of the day. I first tried this climb about 3 years ago, only once and had forgotten everything about it mostly so I was very happy when I made it through all the hard climbing and fell stupidly from the final crimpy face section staring at the chains. It wasn’t so bad as I did it second go and it felt quite steady for the grade.

Will high on "Obsession" (7b+) Nat tried it after I set up the ropes for filming. I bigged her up for the flash as I thought it would suit her. In general I think it did suit her style, but sometimes its difficult to tell if certain moves that I find “not too bad” won’t be too shouldery or powerful for her. There is a big difference between girls and guys generally and although Nat could be stronger than me on some route types, powerful and shouldery moves are always going to be easier for me thanks to my height and genetically superior upper body strength (because I’m a guy). There was one move (the crux) up high that Nat basically couldn’t reach without an insanely awkward and very contorted hand sequence – the move for me was a basic right hand press to reach a good crimp, hardly even worth calling the crux once I figured out the best foot beta.

Will was making fantastic progress on “Obsession” and had successfully made one of the coolest moves I’ve ever seen apart of his routine sequence (see pic). On the last attempt of the day, after he literally said to me whilst tying his climbing shoes “I’ll just take the draws down when I reach the top”, he made the send! It was a good climb and I can quite happily say that I think it was the best I’ve seen Will climb in all the years I’ve known him – GOOD JOB!

Will's crazy move! Day 3 – Gordale… GOARN!!!!!!!!

GORDALE IS A VERY WOODY WORD ISN’T IT!?!?!?!

As I said before, I have never actually climbed here before yet I have heard so much about it! I have suffered years of friends telling me epic tales of climbing in the mega crag of Gordale. Fights 30+ metres up on “Supercool” (8a+) and other such giant routes that call Gordale home.

Me high on "Supercool" (8a+) - Photo by Will Caroll Today I was keen to give this mega monolithic route a good go. I had a funny idea that I could give “Supercool” a good onsight burn, then hopefully do it second go, then try “Huecool” (8b) and hopefully do that second go too  That would be a good day! Things never go quite as planned and if they had then I think I would probably be a little upset as I wouldn’t have a totally awesome 8b to go back and try.

My onsight attempt on “Supercool” was really good! I made it fairly high into the route making it through the first crux and failing tickling the good hold on the second  I felt it was not so bad as a second go would surely be on after working the moves a bit more. Realistically, I should have done this second go… I did all the cruxes and I was high up in the final few metres when I tickled a crimp a little lower than I had expected to get it which caused my nail to ping of the hold causing a sudden lapse of balance and sent me flying off the route. A wee bit angry with my stupid error, I got my “stuff” together and despatched 3rd try

I then quickly equipped “Huecool” (8b) knowing well that we hadn’t much time left before we would head back home. “Huecool” was definitely a step up from “Supercool”. I thought it odd though that the rock was very snappy, I figured this being a classic 8b with relatively a lot of traffic that the rock might have been a bit stronger… I quickly found out that this wasn’t the case. I didn’t get a good chance at working the crux properly but it felt pretty standard for an 8b crux (if a little bit tenuous) and I can’t wait to get back there to finish it off!

Nat had a really good day at Gordale starting off with a mega flash burn on “Supercool” followed by an equally impressive second go attempt that saw her reaching the very final crux move (which she will need to figure out new beta for because it is obviously too spanned for her using my beta). After that she finished the day off onsighting the very awesome looking 7b+ “Revival” which she positively breezed up not accounting for the 100mph winds that day

Photo by Will Carrol Will also had a good day making a great attempt at “Revival” falling on the final crux section. Other friends of ours at the crag today Chris and James spent their time working the beastly looking 7b “Last Dog”. By the end of the day Chris got to add this to his ever increasing tick list of 7b redpoints.

Conclusion

Not a bad wee trip to Yorkshire. Our tick lists were healthy, we had lots of fun and we got some mighty fine pictures and films taken. Thanks to Will Caroll, Jen Randall, Dom Bush and Catherine Speakman for taking some amazing photos and film during the trip

And Special thanks to Catherine for standing on the edge of Gordale to get the shots – thats what I call going beyond the call of duty!

Photo by Catherine Speakman

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Gorge du Loup (Part 1)
5 August 2012, 10:58 am

So we’ve been in France now for almost a week but haven’t actually done much climbing as of yet :/ Me and Nat drove to France with Alex Barrows in his awesome orange van with the aim of first heading to La Balme, a popular locals crag 5 hours from Nice and from there we would then head to Gorge du Loup, an even better locals crag with some steep and  hard lines to get stuck into.

Alex high on a 7c at La Balme On first arriving at La Balme we found it to be insanely hot and humid. We had one days climbing there in which all three of us where pretty tired from the drive south and therefore not up to any hard climbing. This was further made harder with the fact that conditions where terrible, it could only be worse if the crag was sodden wet, but in reality, it was my hands that were continually dripping with sweat!

At La Balme, I came close on our first days climbing to doing a long 8a+ (I onsighted the original 7c+ first section) but it was just too hot and I was too tired. Alex did a 7c on the left hand side after much complaining of how hard it felt and Nat followed him with only one attempt at it. Not the best start, so we opted for a drive to Gorge du Loup earlier than expected to escape these hot temps.

We are now climbing at Gorge du Loup (Deverse Sector). We have only had two days climbing there so far but from what I have seen I am mega impressed. It’s super steep, very gymnastic and bloody hard! I’m hoping it’s because I’m still tired from traveling, I must admit that on todays rest day I have never felt so exhausted after two days climbing in my life… On the first day I did an 8a there called “Cascade” which in reality wasn’t that hard, the holds were big, there were loads of kneebar rests but for some reason I just couldn’t recover? I have been training had for this trip, harder than ever before and indoors I feel stronger than ever as well, but the initial transfer to outdoors has felt pretty abysmal. At the end of day 1 I tried and 8a+ called “Quossai” which I had marked down for an onsight attempt but upon trying it, each move felt like a V10 boulder and I thought it was impossible for me to climb…

Nat on the same 7c at La Balme On Day 2, things perked up a lot! I tried “Quossai” and after having only had a brief play on the route the day before, I fell off this time in the final section more due to my stupidity than anything else. I decided to rest myself from trying this until after a rest day and instead to try the 8b/+ variation out left called “Soul Sacrifice”. I did all the moves quickly and linked sections together on my first try but it felt very hard for a supposed 8b. I spoke to a local and he said that a few holds have broken from the bottom and middle section which have now bumped the grade up a bit. Before it was considered an 8b/+ so now it probably is 8b+.

Nat has been on fire, she did an 8a second try on her first day and got high up on the retro-flash of another 8a called “Sika” (named for an obvious feature of the roue). I am going to have a flash attempt after a rest day and hopefully she will do it as well.

We have been climbing and chilling alongside friends of ours from England, Slovenia and Germany who we’ve met up with here. Ed and Sam Hamer drove out here with fellow Sheffield based climber Ethan Walker. From Slovenia, Gasper Pintar and Izidor Zupan. And from Germany, my old pal from Siurana, king of jokes and a 9a beast, Daniel Jung.

It’s good to be out here climbing with friends and pushing it hard on the rocks. Nat and I have been still felt really tired physically and mentally after our travelling experiences but thanks to a good supply of Stoats bars, oatcakes and Porridge we have been keeping ourselves strong!

Psyched for more climbing tomorrow!

ROBZ OUT

Nat hiding in a cave from Alex, he can't find her...

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Gorges du Loup (Part 2)
9 August 2012, 4:39 pm

So we have just had days 3 and 4 of climbing in the mega steep, mega drilled limestone sports crag of Gorges du Loup (Gorges of the Wolf). After days 1 and 2 of climbing here I thought perhaps it was just me, tired after a long drive south and experiencing a bit of travelers exhaustion. Now having climbed after a rest day, I am more convinced that the style here has more to do with the difficulties I am experiencing.

Climbing at Deverse sector in Gorges du Loup is a lot like climbing on a hard competition style route indoors. They are relentlessly difficult with long sustained sections and no real rests (unless your Alex Barrows and love knee bars). A lot of the climbing holds here are drilled finger pockets alongside tufa pinches and everything is from 15 degrees to 85 degrees overhanging. Resting is intense on these routes as you are always upside down in a knee bar whilst struggling with core body tension. Pain and blood rushing to the head are common themes of rests at Deverse. It’s a constant struggle for survival on these routes and there are no techy tricks that can get you by the hard moves… it basically comes down to just pulling hard when your pumped. The subtleties in this crag are still there but they are of a different style to what I have accustomed myself in crags like Ceuse, Siurana and Malham – in these places you can find little foot placements that might aid you a lot with resting through a crux sequence or just allowing you to compose yourself. In Deverse subtleties are only there to help you pull your way to the next hold, a mistake or hesitation on these routes costs you everything because you now need to pull doubly hard to make the next move!

I feel that the training I put into this trip perhaps was misguided slightly. I was expecting this same style of climbing but not the length, so most of my training that was centred around anaerobic endurance was done a lot on shorter circuits with no rests and intensive moves. The circuits might last anywhere from 1-4 minutes depending on my focus, but these routes at Deverse are longer than that and the rests that you need drain you as well. It would have been much better if I had focussed more on longer circuits and more boulder (strength/power) training.

Anyway, the last two days have been better… I did a popular 8a+ called “Quossai” which I haven’t seen anybody “walk up” (which is always nice to see). I attempted to flash another 8a that Nat did called “Sika” but had an abysmal attempt failing shy of the chains. I was by no means close though as the crux is at the end. I went to the top of the extension, an 8b which was really good but with one intersting exception… every hold bar one was drilled. It was probably the most basic route I have ever climbed, but I don’t think just any 8b climber could do it – it would require a level of power endurance beyond the norm. There are no jugs, no hard moves and certainly no rests!

The good news is I almost did a Gorges du Loup 8b/+ called “Soul Sacrifice” which is definitely an apt name for it. I feel like to do this route one has to sacrifice their soul to the god of power endurance which I would be more than happy to do if it gave me the ability to climb these routes  I fell off just below the chains but totally powered out – looking forward to attempts after a rest day

The final route of day 4 was “Hot Chilli X” (8c) which I have entered myself into alongside Izidor Zupan (Slovenian friend). Izidor is looking super strong on it and hopefully should do it before he goes home in a few days. Gasper Pintar, another slovenian friend did it a few days ago in an awesome display of pure fight, grit and determination. I was also really inspired watching the beast, Ed Hamer casually flash the bottom part of this route linking in with the 8a “Deverse Satanique” which he had climbed before. The link is given 8b+ and although you can’t technically call it a flash, IT WAS!!! Ed belayed me on my first look at “Hot Chilli X”, at the same time talking me through the moves. I can definitely see how this route is flashable for someone as strong as Ed, the holds are all positive, it’s just the footholds that are non-existent. It is pure resistance climbing, no really hard moves, just lots of them and wait for it… NO REST!!!

I’m looking forward to finishing of “Soul Sacrifice” (8b/+) after another rest day and then hopefully putting my last remaining efforts into “Hot Chilli X”.

ROBZ OUT



Source: Robbie's Blog

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Gorges du Loup (Part 3)
19 August 2012, 8:46 am

It’s amazing how quickly time flies when having fun…

That is as the saying goes but it’s not entirely been true this trip. Time has flown by for me but I haven’t been enjoying myself as much as I should have been. It’s a common theme when pushing your own personal boundaries, when you’re not going well, having fun seems to be a lot harder. What a stupid way to be though right? Why should having fun correlate directly with performing your best at the activity you are doing? It shouldn’t realistically, I tell this to all the kids I coach every time they are competing or going for it outdoors… It’s one thing giving the advice but it’s another taking it…

When you put “All you eggs in one basket” it makes life a lot harder to enjoy when things don’t go as planned. I had planned this trip to improve on Siurana (earlier this year) with potentially another 8c and hopefully another 8b+ or two. I was also hoping to step my onsight grade up a bit which has been somewhat lacking in attempts over the last year – but instead, I’ve probably had the most unsuccessful climbing trip since my first trip to Ceuse (which ended in basically no actual ascents harder than my warm ups)! So yes… initially I was very upset with my performance. Nat tried to help me but I am quite a difficult person to console when down in the dumps. But you can’t spend the whole time sulking can you? Well I managed to, but life goes on

A week ago I did the classic 8a/+ of the crag “Deverse Satanique” and after a rest day, did the left hand variation of it as well called “Deverse SatanX” which goes at 8b. Young Buster Martin climbed this earlier in the year so I was really keen to check it out and see what it was all about. The climbing on the lower section shared with the 8a/+ was sustained and pumpy but with no hard moves – if there wasn’t a rest before the split for the 8b then for sure it would make the last section feel a lot harder but thankfully there was a nice little “mushroom” shaped hold that provided the perfect shake before hitting the final head wall, a vertical wall on positive but small crimps and pockets. As most of you will know now from Facebook, Nat made “SatanX” her first 8b as well shortly after I did it in very quick succession. She is definitely capable of climbing a lot harder! Lets put it this way, if she spent as much time figuring out the perfect beta as some of the climbers at the crag, then she would climb 8c as quickly as she did 8b

Since climbing those awesome routes, I have tried a number of routes from 8b-8c and basically got spanked on every one. I fell off clipping the chains four times on one of them, and was making it to the end of another 8b falling just looking at the chains! I have never felt so totally out of my depth in a climbing area as I have here. For most of the trip my mind has been clouded by high expectations and a feeling that I really should be doing better than this, but it can’t always go our way can it? If it did then we would never learn anything and therefore never progress…

The city lights below our beautiful camping spot... We have two more days before we go home now – I am in the process of preparing my next training plan for after Kalymnos in October which should hopefully get me fit and strong for next spring. I am not going to make the same mistakes as this time for sure. I’ll post my new plan as soon as I have finished with it for everyone to see and comment

ROBZ OUT

Source: Robbie's Blog

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QuickDraw Club @ Hepburn
27 August 2012, 9:22 pm

On a beautiful sunny day, where better go than on a bouldering trip to Northumberland!



Yesterday, Neill Busby and myself went with the Edinburgh based kids climbing club, the QuickDraw Club, bouldering at the popular Northumbrian crag of Hepburn. I’ve been here twice before, once on a cool crisp winters day and again on stiflingly hot summers day. Sunday however was neither hot nor cold, it was pleasant enough and perfect conditions for a fun day of climbing on Northumberland sandstone.

Rory Whyte warming up on the classic cracks of Hepburn The group of kids attending ranged in ability levels from top competition climbers eager for some hard sends to recreational youth climbers keen for a fun and sociable day out climbing with friends and family.

Jodie Brown warming up... That is indeed what the QuickDraw club does so well, bringing the youth climbing scene in Edinburgh together so that both kids and parents can have fun climbing irrespective of grades and goals. QuickDraw meets are fun days out for everyone!

Kirsten on the F6C - She just latched the crimp and matched (The Crux) Buz had been to Hepburn before as I had, last time with another group of kids, so he had already a good circuit of problems planned. The aim was to start off with some easier problems (good for warming up on) on a shorter boulder in the central area. The selection here was exceptional for the standard of kids we had, with a good range of blocs from F3 to F6C, everyone had something to go at. We all warmed up on two classic crack problems at about F3/4 – it got everyone moving well on rock again as crack aren’t the most obvious of features to breeze up (unless your Tom Randall). After warming up a bit on those, Buz and I chose a couple of problems a bit harder for the kids to go at. I started off with a tricky F6A which I thought was more like F6C and another bloc to the right given F6C that I thought could be F6A, however the guide was 100% clear which ones were which, it even gave descriptions, so something was off there. A bunch of the kids flashed the apparent F6C whilst only one or two did the F6A

Adam Brown working his way up the flake! After climbing at the main area we headed down for lunch, a QuickDraw Barbecue!!! These guys really know how to run a climbing trip! In between sessions at the crag just pop down for a sausage roll and some chicken soup  YUM! Forgot to mention of course the fruit loaf

Like Father... Like Son... Next up Buz and I split the group, he took the older girls and boys whilst I took the younger kids. They headed up and around towards the upper section of Hepburn whilst my group headed towards the “Northern Soul” boulder, not before checking out a few blocs that I hadn’t been to before but saw in the guide. Unfortunately thanks to the wet weather this year, all the greenery seems to have grown quite a bit, masking the “path” and making finding this elusive sector slightly trickier. We eventually found it and did a few class slab problems – the most exciting bit was when young Adam Brown was close to topping, when suddenly he slid down the face of the boulder straight into his dads arms  He did it next go though!

Evan creeping his way up the slopers to the finishing jugs... just in sight! Don't worry, Grandad is spotting! The “Northern Soul” boulder was too hard for the kids, however “Titanic Arete” boulder had a fun (and slightly green) F5+ for everyone, and back at the “Northern Soul” boulder was a smaller one in front that offered a few class blocs from F4-F6A. The trickiest bit about those are the top-outs (SLOPERS!!!) and for kids that boulder would be a high ball for sure  I think we may have the future Kevin Jorgeson’s of Scotland!

Declan slapping on "The Keel" To finish off, we headed back along the crag to just beyond where we started. Everyone tried their hand at a number of problems, one in particular that was spitting everyone off left right and centre was “The Keel”! Not sure on the grade but it was an awesome feature that takes some compression ability (something the kids weren’t used to) as well as mantling skills on slopers (again, something none of us are that used to).

We all packed up after that and headed back to the cars. Everyone was tired after the days climbing not to mention seeing a few raw tips. Everyone had a good day out in the end and I think I can speak for all when I say that “I can’t wait until the next one”

Another good day out climbing, thats what sunny days are for

ROBZ OUT

Matthew in control on "The Keel"... but not for long

Source: Robbie's Blog

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World Youth Climbing Championships 2012 Singapore
1 September 2012, 4:46 pm

The last week has been the event hundreds of young climbers around the world have been waiting for, the week of the World Youth Climbing Championships! This year it was held in one of the most amazing places I have ever had the pleasure of visiting, Singapore. Although I never got to go this year and support the GB Team, I was there in spirit every morning at 4am watching them through the Live Feed. When I say I was there “in spirit”, thats not far from the truth, 4am is too early for me and I can’t be classed as “alive” at that time in the morning, more like the waking dead

Every morning I would await the dreaded phone call from Nat (my alarm) and then tune into watch the boys and girls of Team GB climb their hearts out at the competition. Unfortunately due to weather delays, live feed issues and work commitments I couldn’t always see how everybody was doing and didn’t get to see the whole competition, but I got a few of the performances on video that you can watch below!

The two top performances from Team GB where by the youngest members (Youth B), Molly Thompson-Smith from London and William Bosi from Edinburgh. William Bosi is one of the boys I coach in Edinburgh so you can imagine what a feeling it is like watching him compete at worlds!

The overall Team GB performance this year was fantastic! Here are the results:

Charlotte Garden (Female Juniors) – 22nd

Molly Thompson-Smith (Female Youth B) – 7th

Tara Hayes (Female Youth B) – 20th

Jonny White (Male Youth A) – 37th

Buster Martin (Male Youth A) – 38th

William Bosi (Male Youth B) – 4th

What a great result overall! Now for a more detailed view on William Bosi’s performance. Here is a video of William on his first qualifier:

The route was described by the IFSC commentator Dan as being a 7c route. Realistically if it was 7c then William would have onsighted it along with 3/4 of the rest of the competitors… That didn’t happen  It looked hard and from watching the other competitors I know such as Ruben Firnenburg (Germany) and Anze Peharc (Slovenia) struggle on it as well, I was convinced that it looked more like your typical competition grade 8a route. Nobody topped the route anyway. William climbed well on this, at 0:53 you even see he gets a cheeky knee bar on the volume that allows him a bit of extra reach, a more stable clipping position and the ability to match the next tufa comfortably. Watching others at the same point, they were using way too much of their upper body to wrestle the volume into gaining the tufa. At 1:32 we see William doing the cross over from the undercut where a number of really strong competitors unfortunately fell. This included young Dom Burns from Ireland (European Youth Bouldering Champion) who seemed to lose a lot of power on this move, but he would make up for this on the next route  At 2:18 we see William stepping high for the hard cross-over that both Willaim and Anze Peharc (this years World Champion) fell from. From the live feed it looks as though William just powered out at this section.

Now for William on his second Qualifier:

Now unfortunately I didn’t get as much video on this climb, but William cruised the first part anyway  What we do see at 0:20 though is a foot slip just as he caught a sloping press hold out right. This caused him to take quite a forceful swing backwards and no doubt cost him a lot of energy. Everybody knows what a foot slip can do to your confidence as well as your energy/pump levels, it can drastically alter your confidence in trusting smaller footholds and smears, exactly what you don’t want happening during a competition. Luckily he held it together and made it through the next few moves unscathed. When William hit the rock over on the yellow volume, I thought this was possibly his life saver, a chance to rest up some before moving into the next section of the wall. Unfortunately this part of the climb wasn’t nearly as restful as I had thought and William came of as he was going for the large sloping pinch.

William Bosi before the rock over on the Yellow Volumes. The holds looked so much better on the live feed  

Takato Tsumori (JPN) well on his way to making one of only five tops on Q2 in the Youth B Category  

William qualified for semi’s in 20th place just ahead of fellow competitor and friend Dom Burns (Ireland) who was placed 21st. Dom beat William on the second qualifier placing 17th for that route. Now lets have a look at William in the Semi’s!

If you ask me, you can’t ask for a better soundtrack as your about to get on a comp route  If you listen to the commentator at the beginning he mentions Nat in the chat rooms hahaha

William on the semi-final route was the most exciting bit yet. I knew he had what it takes to make finals, he just had to really push for it and make every move count. I had only seen the first few climbers climb the route and none had made it look easy. Dom fell just above the red volume so I knew whereabouts it was going to be getting really hard. At around 2:30, you see William entering the bulge as he moves off the volume – everyone had fallen just below here so he was currently in 1st position. There was a moment though when he looked like he was going to come off the same move as Dom, but instead of attempting a wild cross-over move, he instead wrong-handed himself (to get the next hold on the volume) and amazingly matched right after securing him in the lead. Afterwards we see William attempting to rest for a second, then getting the next clip and afterwards going for the hold and coming off. It looked similar to Q1 and Q2, he doesn’t look pumped, it’s more like he’s just losing power.

Amazingly, although watching William climb was exciting, the best bit was watching the others afterwards to decide whether or not William would make finals or not. As I watched I found myself shouting at the screen as climbers fought to hold on, each one falling close to around where William had made and occasionally making it past and quite a bit further. As the count down to the last climber came, I saw William progress in rank from 12th – 11th – 10th At this point I was on the edge of my seat! If a couple more climbers could fall then William would make finals! 9th… At this point I had to run to work  I was unsure of what had happened but my hopes were high for William making finals  When I arrived at Ratho I immediately jumped onto the computer and went straight to IFSC.TV

WILLIAM WAS PLACED 6TH!!! Even better than I had expected! There was nothing to worry about, he was very much in the finals, not only “just”.

Now for the finals!

At the time I was setting for the Scottish Championships Prep Event and EICA Youth Team Selection Day. During our lunch break we watched the finals  The video is here but I have masked over a lot of bad language by fellow Ratho employees with music so no innocent ears are damaged

In the finals William climbed really well. He was fast, fluid and appeared in the zone! Talking to Cathy Alldred at Ratho that night she mentioned how the competitors seem to step up their game massively as the competition progresses. I would have to agree with her on this. Looking at William on Q1 and Q2 compared to semi’s is one thing, but seeing how he climbed in the finals… the difference is incredible! In the finals, William was climbing like a World Champion! The ability to do this in competition is paramount to succeeding in them and he 100% has it!

William finished in 4th place! This is the best ranking he has ever had in an international competition and to have achieved it at the World Championships is incredible! Not only this, but out of all the boys in Youth B born in 98, he was 1st, yet another achievement in itself.

Finally another big well done to everybody who competed for Team GB, and to everyone who competed at the World Championships full-stop…

ROBZ OUT

Source: Robbie's Blog