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MCofS: GB Team Training Event No.1 – Boulder Training @ TCA
8 January 2012, 7:39 pm

06/01/12

Hey Guys

If you read my last blog post, you will know that today was a big day for me. It was the first MCofS British Team Event I have run and was the official beginning as such of my becoming the new Team Coach in Scotland. I am basically filling the exceedingly large boots (metaphorically speaking of course) of Mr McGeek. Today felt like kind of a test really, in theory this is something I should be able to handle, but despite this I was still nervous.

Rory climbing up the wall @ the TCA I was working alongside one of my best friends, Neill Busby (Senior Instructor at EICA) which certainly made things easier. We had 13 kids altogether, all of whom are at a standard not far off National Team Status. To get a picture of the level we are talking about, the lower end younger girls and boys are operating in the 6c/7a onsight region whilst in the upper end we have potential 8a onsighters and V10 boulderers.

In the end, the day ran as smoothly as I could have hoped for. All the kids (as well as me and Buz) had a great time and learned loads. TCA was an excellent venue for the event and I am very happy that they allowed us the use of the centre, definitely going to be back for future events.

Max "The Future" Milne doing what he does best! The next event is February 11th with myself and Buz taking the kids down to Northumberland bouldering. If we don’t get outdoors we were thinking of crashing in on Climb Newcastle.

I am currently lying in bed running over plans for tomorrows 1:1 sessions in Aberdeen and slowly sinking deeper into regret about booking my CWA assessment for Sunday… AGHHHHHH!!! I really should have prepared more : P

ROBZ OUT

The whole crew on the day

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Evolv Shamans
10 January 2012, 3:40 pm

Yo Guys

I’ve been sponsored by Evolv since I was 17, thats almost 5 years now! I have tested shoes across the wide range of different companies from 5.10 and Scarpa to MadRock, La Sportiva and Red Chilli. I’ve climbed on rock and on plastic with probably every companies current blast at performance rock shoes and what do I have to say for it? This shoes better than that one? Their rubbers crap or their shoes don’t fit? In all honesty, I can’t really say anything like that for the most. I know that I don’t personally like the MadRock or Boreal Series for a few different reasons, but I can’t say that Scarpa or 5.10 have never done me wrong when I’ve tested out one of their fine pieces of performance shoe wear (as long as I’ve had my trusty Evolv’s as back ups of course ; P )

Testing out Scarpa Boosters in Kalymnos on "Gaia" (8b)... It wasn't until I got out my trusty Evolv's that the job was done! What I can say though, is that I have yet to find a shoe brand that truly meets all the demands of the modern climber like Evolv does. Why not check out here Evolv’s awesome line of performance shoe wear, whether you are a crack addict, grit fanatic or plastic fantastic, there is something perfectly designed and always quite trendy there just or you. I have been eyeing up the Rasta Shamans recently : P

The ultimate in Reggae shoe wear I think what attracts me so much to the Shamans is their combined comfort and performance appeal. I like my shoes tight fitting but not agonising to the point of crippling myself. The subtle curved design and dipped toe at the end provides both comfort for your foot and the downturned nature of the best performance shoes. I think they feel similar in shape to maybe the La Sportiva Solutions (without being overly weird in size and make you look like Santa Little Helper) but like the 5.10 Arrowheads provide comfort as well.

The triple velcro system works perfectly to get as tight a fit as you can manage and is as easy to get of as saying 1…2…3…

Personally I’ve never been a big fan of laces, so these work perfectly. With other performance velcro shoes sometimes you find yourself really pulling hard to get that extra tighter squeeze round your foot, however with the Shamans triple velcro system its not even a bother.

Hope you enjoyed the video and that you noticed my Bo’ Selecta Michael Jackson impersonation at the start (dedicated to Alex Barrows). Thanks to Adam Bailes at Minus Ten Media not just for his awesome video editing work but also for his good chat at the crag, psyched to catch up and hang out in Spain for 2 months!!! YAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

ROBZ OUT

Source: Robbie's Blog

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YCS Round 1 and 1:2′s @ Ratho
14 January 2012, 10:31 pm

Today was yet another big day for me, it was the YCS Round 1 for the South Scotland region in which a large number of young rock stars that I coach were attending. Not only was I coming in to support my young padawans in one of the biggest events for them this year, but also I was in to work with some other young talents from up North who have made the 2 1/2 hour journey from Aberdeen for a tough weekend climbing at the only indoor climbing centre on earth where it can actually snow inside! On that note folks, the roof is finally fixed ; )

The day started out well. Three of my most talented pupils where hitting the boulders hard early on with some of the most awesome displays of pure psyche energy I have ever seen at a YCS round, and thats saying a lot seeing as I’ve been involved in the YCS every year since I was 15!

Ewan Davidson, Sam Harland-Sendra and David Miedsybrodski where toughing it out in whats probably the strongest category I’ve ever seen, Youth C Boys. Saying that, the Youth C girls is equally as tough seeing as there are around 6 girls competing in it all of whom deserve podium places. Competition can be a harsh environment : (

Ewan, Sam and David startled the audience with some impressive performances against the other boys, but hats have to go off to young Sam who pulled out an impressive flash of the second boulder problem, which only saw a couple of flashes through the entire day from categories a lot older than his!

One of my younger and more recent prodigies startled the crowd with an impressive flash of his second boulder, probably the only flash of that problem in his category and he even managed an even more outstanding top of his 3rd problem (the same one Sam flashed as his second).

In the youngest boys category, Sam’s brother (and my youngest padawan) Leo cruised absolutely everything, dominating his category with nothing more than pure Leo style crushing power!!! He flashed every boulder and every route bar his final which he fell only two holds from the top. This kid is seriously strong and still only 7 years old, the great thing about it is after the event, the fact that he had won was second only to his desire for Pizza : P QUALITY!

In the youngest girls category, Emma Davidson (Ewan’s sister) climbed outstandingly throughout the day and polished off with an impressive 3rd place. Ewan and David both had excellent days, Ewan making 2nd place and David missing out on 3rd by only a few points. Sam won the category in true French style (his dads french, good genes for climbing I think). Connor placed 2nd being tipped from first only by young Rory Whyte, one of the most impressive talents I have ever set eyes on and certainly no push over.

So all in all a good day for the kids competing. As well as supporting them, as I said above, I was coaching some Northern kids as well. Tomorrow we are having a massive mock competition for them, however today I was doing a few preliminary 1:2 sessions. First off I had young Ben Milne and Ben Findlay. Both were looking good on the walls today and i’m hoping that they continue on their fighting form for next weeks YCS in the North. Later on in the evening I had Max “The Future” Milne and Rebecca Kinghorn for a sesh. We didn’t push it too hard, though Rebecca made a very impressive onsight of one of Calum Forsyth’s spicy 6c’s and later on pushed pretty hard on a desperate comp wall 7a! Max was a little tired from I think the previous days fun with friends but still showed a lot of his usual unstoppable power on a top rope 7a+, getting it with only a few falls (mostly due to reach issues).

Tomorrow the rest of the Northern crew will dominate Ratho in their hoardes for a total beasting mock comp! I have 5 x routes planned in each category plus 3 x boulder problems from todays YCS event. They will benefit well hopefully from the comp style setting and positive Ratho atmosphere… that is if it isn’t too far below zero : D

Finally, a great big WELL DONE  to everybody that competed on the day. And a special well done to Jodie Brown who got her first ever podium place : D She’s been training extra hard for this, Keep it up dude!

ROBZ OUT

Source: Robbie's Blog

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GCRS Coaching @ EICA: Ratho
15 January 2012, 8:40 pm

I know I said yesterday was tough, well today was tougher. Following on from yesterday’s South Scotland YCS Round 1, today I was working with a huge group of Scotland Norths top climbing clubs, the Granite City Rock Stars. Usually I coach these guys in their home wall, Transition Extreme, today though was a special occasion. Because of yesterdays YCS, we benefited from the new comp style routes and boulder problems and so we made a mock competition for the kids.

Unlike a YCS, we did 5 routes instead of 3 as well as 3 boulder problems. The psyche eminating from the group was inspiring to say the least. I can’t put into words just how amazing it is seeing the next generation of Scottish climbers being brought up in the current scene.

The first two routes in each category where pretty easy, but the level soon rose. Every group got to try at least three different routes from the YCS round plus a few extras.

The best part of the route climbing day had to be when watching Scott Donaldson on his onsight attempt of the hardest route from the YCS, the Orange Slab!!! I graded it f7a, but its probably physically only f6c, but on a technical perspective probably f9c+ : P It was one of the techiest routes I’ve ever climbed in my life! Scott’s attempt on it was amazing not only for his technical ability to get so high, but also for his sheer persistence and determination not to let go. Its this attitude that separates good climbers from the best. I first saw this element in Scott’s climbing whilst with him in Siurana, Spain. During the whole trip he didn’t fall off once despite being thrown into the deep-end on routes harder and more technical than he has ever been on before. Here’s a short clip of Scott making his high point on his onsight attempt. To give you a little background on the situation, I left him on the route after he had started climbing and had reached a tricky point in which he hung around for a few minutes figuring it out. I left for a good 10 minutes only to return and find him in the exact same spot! I was super impressed, so I gave him a key bit of beta which he used and scraped up the arete into the second crux and onwards to the top…

Onwards to the bouldering room. The problems set for the comp were interesting and thought provoking, perfect for a mock comp. The kids got 3 problems to try each in a YCS style format with a judge and spotter in their respective groups. Everyone seemed to be getting a lot from trying the problems, especially Busby’s volume problem (video in the last blog). It was impressive to see young Max “The Future” Milne top that as well as every other problem bar the hardest Fluro Yellow V7 that only one person topped (Flash), Jack Gomersall. Jack also made an impressive (and very scary) onsight of the purple 7a on the new comp wall.

So once again a very successful day coaching some of Scotland finest youth climbers. Next weekend I am up in Aberdeen once again for yet another coaching session, can’t wait : D

ROBZ OUT

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Session with David
17 January 2012, 10:17 am

Hey Guys

Tonight I was coaching young David Miedzybrodzki at EICA: Ratho. David did a brilliant job competing in probably the hardest category in last weekends YCS, the Youth C Boys. He placed 4th in the event but is pretty psyched to see if he can improve on that in further rounds in an effort to get a place on the Scottish Team and make the finals.

The coaching session today was based largely around returning to the competition routes and boulders that he struggled with on the day. Out of the three competition boulders, there were two that David didn’t manage. He was definitely capable of doing them, but sometimes its not just about whether or not you could do them after work, more whether or not you can spot the sequence quick and make the right decisions on the day when there is more pressure.

The first problem we looked at was the volumes only problem. This was my favourite out of all that where set and is certainly a work of art in terms of comp route setting. It was subtle, technical and very dependant on trusting your feet, weighting them appropriately in the right direction and body position. If you didnt weight your feet enough in the right direction you would slip and if you didnt have the correct body position the holds would feel terrible.

David and I discussed the problem and its nature, we watched videos of other competitors attempting and climbing it and we worked on it a great deal during the session. David seemed to struggle with the final move in particular. My opinion was that he wasn’t mantling far enough leftwards i.e. not trusting his left foot on the volume, but he got it in the end by doing a pretty crazy bridge against the side corner and slippey blue volume. Check out the vid:

Here is a video of Sam flashing the same problem at the YCS R1. Its really interesting to see the different ways both kids do it:

After his successful ascent, we moved outside into the freezing cold arena and had a shot at his final route, the Orange 6c! This route is no joke probably the hardest most techy 6c I’ve ever seen. I’m tempted to phone up Gresham and Dawes and ask them to see if they would grade it as a solo, cause i think it might be harder than “Indian Face” E10!!!

David climbed exceptionally well on this making it far up the route, further than he had on the comp day and fell on one of the final moves just before the last crux. He then began work on the upper section, working out the sequence, all the foot and body positions and repeatedly attempting the desperate final mantle. In the end he did every move and managed the route in roughly two or three sections, so he will definitely be back for this one.

After climbing, we finished off with a core session in the gym and then headed home.

Its the kids like David that really inspire me as a coach and make me want to continue helping them in any way I can. He has tonnes of motivation, focus and a definite drive that will aid him endlessley towards climbing success.

ROBZ OUT

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Steve McClure @ TCA
26 January 2012, 10:40 am

We where meant to be heading down to the county for some Kylo action but on a quick glimpse at the darkened skies this morning we decided that a trip to TCA may be a better option (at least a slightly warmer/drier experience).

Check it out, just click on the pic! Mr McClure had recently set a new white circuit at TCA and having heard a lot about his setting (almost all of it positive of course) I was eager to test them out.

Steve McClure on the First Ascent of "O'Draconian Devil" (8b+) in Kalymnos. I did this route last October : D When I arrived it was just as I had expected, Steve being the King of Routes had set some amazing looking problems spanning across all the best features of the wall, using it to its fullest for every problem. The longest problems where in the region of 15 moves in length, but the sheer technicality and subtle style to every problem required very specific foot and body positions that took time and energy to place. Certainly I would say that for your average 15 move long upwards style route, your on the wall at least one and a half times as long for the longer McClure problems simply due to the climbing style.

After a days climbing on Steve’s problems, I came away feeling as though I’d been challenged technically as well as physically, something which rarely happens in Scottish Climbing walls. I think sometimes setters can be too overly focussed on making problems wild power fests with dyno’s and campus moves, which really are pretty basic and easy to make as well as totally pointless for the majority of climbers who wish to improve. Don’t get me wrong, I love basic pulling problems, i’d say thats what I’m good at more than anythingelse, but for us to really improve as climbers its not simply about how hard you can pull and I think that Steve’s setting displayed a style that proves this.

My only thought as to how the circuit could be better would be the addition of some shorter problems, but I guess its Steve’s style to set more power endurance style problems as thats his fortay. Big up to Mr McClure! I’ll be back next week when I’m a bit fresher for a real bash at these problems : D

ROBZ OUT

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Luck of the Irish
30 January 2012, 11:47 pm

Last weekend saw me jet-setting off to the emerald isle, land of the leprechauns, shillelaghs and Eddie Barbour (some Indian/Irish 8a+ flashing machine that now resides in Edinburgh).

I was working for Neil Gresham Masterclass which in turn was contracted in to run a coaching series for Vertigo Outdoors, a Dublin based Outdoor Adventure Company. Vertigo Outdoors is run by Rob Davies, his wife Debbie and their business partner Willie. They run an awesome operation over there, from coaching aspiring climbers and running outdoor rock sessions to adventure days in the mountains whether its walking, climbing, mountaineering or mountain biking!

Diligently watching : P The whole bunch of them were very friendly and incredibly welcoming. When I arrived I was picked up by Willie who took me directly to the climbing wall to begin my preparations and despite being on his day off stuck with me the whole day listening to me rambling on about climbing and training. Even when I ended up having a session at the wall he didn’t once complain. I believe his word were:

“I’ve never seen someone enjoy climbing so much!”

That night I stayed with Rob and Debbie at their home just outside of the city. I was eager to save my energy for the following days coaching but as soon as I found out they had their own woody, I was straight up there building circuits for them until something past midnight : P

Rock over NOW!!!! The following day was great! I had two groups to work with, both 3 hours long focussing purely on technique and efficiency of movement. I started of guiding the clients through the basics of moving efficiently on the wall, beginning with the basics of footwork and body positioning. We then looked at using the skills on some pre-made boulders that I set and then again on hard routes onsight. After the onsight burns, we attempted to redpoint any that we missed and then watched videos of them, analysing weaknesses and strengths and comparing with each others, including some of myself demonstrating good technique on the same routes.

After the day was over we indulged in a chinese that afterwards I regretted with fear that 2 months of dedicated dieting was lost : P

Overall a really successful trip that has inspired some more climbers to take their skills a notch further. Not only has it been a successful working day, I also made a few new friends in the process : )

Thanks Rob, Debbie and Willie for a great time in Dublin!

ROBZ OUT

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Its great to read about someone so psyched for the kids they coach - I bet they have a great time 

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TCA Bouldering Competition (Round 2)
7 February 2012, 1:07 am

TCA Bouldering Competition Round 2

Saturday was the second round of Glasgow TCA’s winter bouldering competitions. The first round held last year I had won, surprising myself in my bouldering ability which I had always thought of as clinically weak : P I guess it still is on a comparative scale with my endurance, but seeing as I’m a focussed route climber it was nice to enter a bouldering competition and come out on top – ONE UP TO DA ROUTE CLIMBAZ!!!

The second round in my opinion was even better than the first. I really enjoyed the style of setting in the qualifiers far more. The competition format was Redpoint, meaning you could have as many goes on the problems as you wanted. This meant that nerves were greatly reduced across the field of competitors. The only factor that you had to take into consideration was that because unlimited goes were allowed, the problems set were definitely a step up from last time. I felt that in this format I was a little disadvantaged from not being as strong as other guys out in the field who were mostly pure boulderers.

It was funny on Saturday, because even though it wasn’t flash, I still tried hard to flash the problems for the added practice. I actually did quite well flashing all problems but four and apparently being the only guy to flash the insane slab (probably due to a slight height advantage I’ll admit). The problems I didn’t flash I managed to get most to the last or second last move by the end. I was a bit worried about my points, I knew Gary Vincent had done better than me on one or two problems and Alex Gorham was crushing absolutely everything I saw him on. Not to mention there where also a few dark horses floating around including one Ali Coull who I didn’t realise I was climbing alongside until the very end of the comp.

In the end it was quite a shock, I actually managed to qualify in first place! I beat Gary by 2 points in the qualifiers (probably thanks to the slab) and Alex was in third. The finals were next up and I was eager to do my best in them. I spent most of the time I had eyeing up the final problems, learning every detail i could about them to give myself the best advantage to flash them. From my perspective, I thought that i could flash the far right problem (Problem No. 3), it looked the easiest and most basic. The middle problem (Problem No.2) looked awkward and confusing, but I knew it wasn’t hard, just subtle and requiring a bit of finesse. The far left one (Problem No. 1) looked ok apart from one move to a volume which I was convinced I could get.

Problem No.1

I was first on this crazy thing. On my flash I made a stupid mistake half-way through and pinged of quite early. Second go was a lot better. I managed to stick all the moves until the volume, I eyed up the holds lying flat on the otherside, hoping they were there as I couldn’t quite see them. I threw my hand round the side, caught it, but my other hand came off! I swung off with one hand on the volume and the other flying through the air – before I knew it I was lying flat on the ground. I knew I wouldn’t get any higher but stupidly I decided to go for another blast… I didn’t even get up as high as the volume : P

Problem No.2

This wasn’t actually that bad. I think I could have done better on this if I had been on it first. I was still tired from the last problem and my fingers were starting to bleed at the tips : P It was just a weird sequence really. You had to manoeuvre your way around a huge volume and slap up to a big sloper, the problem here was that when you had the sloper you needed a high heel hook round the side to stabilise yourself before moving any higher, but I couldn’t quite get my heel up and I fell flat on my butt!

Problem No.3

Not making excuses… we actually I am. By the time I came to this one I was well and truly gubbed! There was no chance I was going to do this. I knew this was probably the easiest of the three, I knew it was the most basic and only required the ability to pull hard – but I didn’t have anything left : ( My arms were gone from previous attempts on the other problems and I had to just do my best. I barely got half way…

Thankfully halfway was enough to draw with Alex : P I got 2nd on countback and Alex was third. Gary won the finals with a flash of his first problem (Problem No.3).

It was a really great day overall and I can’t wait until the next one! Come on TCA guys, can’t we have one every month : P I think these bouldering competitions are a great way of testing how well you are going and I really enjoy them as days out just “hanging” with your mates. Saying that, big ups to Neill Busby who came 9th, Calum Forsyth who was 8th (just!) and Ian Patterson who was 14th!

Natalie came 2nd to Anna Trybis in the womans finals as well. Sorry Anna for stealing your brush : P

Also don’t forget guys that EICA: Ratho have their winter bouldering competition on the 19th February. I am setting for the event and will also be demoing for Evolv on the day. We have the new Shaman’s to test that Tiso’s at Ratho will be stocking, so come by and grab a demo pair to test out at the comp : )

PEACE!

P.s. There are loads of photos by Jen Randall! Check out her site!

 

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Welcome to Siurana!
29 February 2012, 12:36 pm

Hey Guys!

So… We have finally arrived  It has felt like an age waiting for the day I would return to this amazing place and finally it is here. Andy and I arrived two days ago around 11pm, everything was dark, no sign of rock but a very faint outline on the already blackened starlit sky where I knew the cliffs lay waiting. The familiar turns in the road as we drove up through the valley shone out to me like a welcoming crowd of long lost friends, occasionally a brief glimpse of red sandstone (the underlying sediment below the rocky limestone cliffs) would remind me I was in Siurana, one of my favourite places on earth!

Darkened cliff faces... We where very lucky actually, Phil Jack a good friend of mine (and one of my coached climbers) was out already and graciously offered to pick us up from the airport. Siurana isn’t the easiest of crags to get to without a car, but once your here, it really is a simple life with worries that only go as far as what your next route is going to be or what your going to be eating for dinner. For Andy and I, the lack of a car provides the added issue of finding people to give us lifts into town, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it

On our first day I really didn’t know where to start… Andy hasn’t been on nearly as many route climbing trips as me and in the last few months, hasn’t go that much climbing done, so it was important that he got stuck into some mileage first. I really wanted to inspire Andy with some of Siurana’s finest routes on our first day so I took him to one of the most spectacular features I have ever laid my eyes one, the immaculate towering beast of a cliff, El Pati!!!

We warmed up on the classic 6b+ “Lame Chuche Baby” first of all. My fingertips were frozen pulling on the micro edges but one feeling mutual with both Andy and I was – “It was great to be back on rock again!”.

Andy on "Crosta Panic" 7a+ I warmed up a little more on an amazing 7a that I have done countless times before, “Viagraman”. Andy went on to make very short work of onsighting this little number, coming straight down afterwards not even slightly pumped. Not bad for someone who hasn’t really climbed in 3 months!

I was eager to get on to something harder and was eyeing up the fabulous line of “Migranya Profunda” (8b+) from across the valley. Andy went on to onsight the tricky 7a “Ay Mamita” and then we headed across the valley to L’olla sector so I could check out the 8b+. On my first trip to Siurana I onsighted the 7c+ direct start (sharing the first 3 bolts) called “Peixa”. On my second trip to Siurana (Last year) I did the mega classic 8b variation, “Migranya”, finishing directly upwards where “Migranya Profunda” (8b+) continues to traverse more to the left and up. This year I would like to complete the trilogy

On my first attempt I reminded myself of all the moves through the start. It was really nice to feel that moves that had previously felt quite tricky now felt really easy. I continued the traverse left for “Migranya Profunda” and found to my great satisfaction that no move felt harder than about V4 and indeed the crux of the 8b+ was still the crux of the 8b. The moves in “Migranya Profunda” are a million times better than in “Migranya” – you have wild cross throughs upside down with crazy pulls of really good mono’s and amazing terrain through steep power endurance style climbing. There’s also loads of rest on the route between the harder sections which if it wasn’t there I could imagine the route being 8c+ or something? All in all, the route probably follows a boulder grade pattern like this:

V3 -> V4 -> V3 -> Easy Section with rests -> V3 -> V4 -> Easy section with rests -> V3 -> V3

On our second day, I wanted to show Andy some amazing easier routes in a sector I have come to really enjoy, “Espero Primavera”. We warmed up on my favourite 6b in Siurana, “Records Oblidats” and continued with the extension to the top of the crag. Andy and I both agreed that the pure quality of the climbing combined with the stunning position this route takes you to makes it one badass climb!

Phil taking a whipper off "Papagora" 7b+ We later on went round the corner back to “El Pati” were Andy onsighted his first 7a+ of the trip, “Crosta Panic”. This crazy route goes through a mega steep bulge right at the top with a fun no-hands kneebar to clip the chain  I did it afterwards as another warm up before heading along to “L’olla” sector for my battle with the 8b+!

After chilling for the afternoon, I got back on the beast. My goals for today were to give it a burn and aim to link in three sections. I topped that with a very high point getting into the final crux (redpoint crux) i.e. the last point I think I’ll fall off on and then linked to the top from just below  Two overlapping halves! I am really happy with this and hopefully it could go quite soon. In terms of difficulty, it doesn’t feel too much harder than other 8b+’s i’ve done but definitely a top end one. I’d say that in comparison with something like “Unjustified” at Malham it feels like there is a lot more to it. It reminds me quite a lot of “Preventiva” (8b) at Disblia, but again there are more cruxy sections with potential to fall. Compared with the Kalymnos 8b+’s its definitely a notch harder than them, maybe like doing “Gaia” (8b) twice

Andy chilling below Phil : P Regardless of the difficulty, I think this is the best route I’ve ever been on and I can’t wait to crush it into dust!

Today Andy and I are having a rest day, about to tuck into a Spanish Omelette Bocadillo whilst I fiddle about with photos, blogs, training programs and finishing my book…

Stay tuned in to the blog for the latest news on our trip here and also up and coming is a new blog on “Born to Succeed”! Chck out the old ones on the training blog too ;P

ROBZ OUT

Dark Moon

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Migranya Profunda (8b+)
3 March 2012, 12:24 pm

Hey guys!

 

So we’re 5 days into our trip to Spain, we’ve had four days climbing so far and me and Andy (despite what many thought may happen) have not killed each other (yet). The truth is, we’ve found that what was missing from previous trips together was our mutual love of Jim Carey and Will Ferrel movies. Together we have enjoyed an almost endless array of quotes from all their movies that have indeed kept us from tearing each other apart. That and of course an afternoon trying to remember the name of a TV show that both Andy and I watch… days in Spain really blend together when contemplating a lifetime of TV watching : P



If you read my last blog, you’ll know that tried a really amazing route called “Migranya Profunda” (8b+). On my first attempt, I was just getting my bearings on the moves. It was great to feel strong after pulling on plastic for the last 3 months, every move felt easy and linking sequence to sequence seemed to be the only issue that may arise.

 

Turns out this wasn’t really a problem. More or less from the word go I was hitting really high points on the route. On my 3rd attempt I fell at the final crux and on my 4th attempt, the final move! Last year I did the easier 8b version in around 4 goes, so to almost get the much harder variation in the same number of attempts after a year of training really boosted my confidence.

 

Andy in the meantime made a few nice sends in the 6c-7a region. Until today, he hasn’t fallen of anything (probably because he’s too scared ;P ). In L’olla sector he onsighted the boudery 7a, “Cargol treu banya” as well as the grim looking 6c “Burden Chicken”. Today Andy got on the direct start to “Migranya” called “Peixa” (the first route I did in L’olla sector, 4 years ago?). He looked really strong on the initial moves, until he got a little stuck in a weird dihedral. The moves through this strange, angular feature are awkward, uncomfortable and basically like climbing a horrendous Yosemite trad route. He was going well until he grabbed for a crumbly bit of rock (NOT A HOLD ANDY). In short, it broke, he fell and now he has two bleeding tips (one horrible flapper on his pinky pad and a slice on his ring finger pad)… NASTY!

 

While Andy was recovering, I thought I may as well go for a burn on the 8b+. I cruised up the first 5 or 6 clips ticking off the first couple of cruxy moves (V3/4). I rested below the bulge, feeling really fresh then continued traversing under the roof doing the fun wild cross throughs between big positive jugs and pockets. I rested again under the left hand side of the bulge eyeing up the following sequence in my mind, every foot hold and hand hold committed to memory…

 

I started moving again, through the third crux (Left crimp, Right crimp, Left mono, Right jug, rest) and now into the very continuous final crux with one or two shakes before committing…

El Pati (Left), El Cargol (Pillar) and Espero Primavera (Right)  

The last sequence isn’t hard on its own, probably a V3 and a V4 stuck together but with no rest in between after having already climbed 20m of power endurance climbing. I commit to the moves for a final time and enjoy the feeling of being confident, un-pumped and strong on every hold. I come up to a big move going for a positive juggy edge… before it always felt quite far, today it feels so close. I grab it, rest my right hand, re-position my right foot on a lower polished dish then begin to fiddle about with the awkward match. I hold the positive edge in a full 4 finger crimp position, then drop to back 3, match with my right hand, drop another finger to make back 2, then wriggle a bit more with my right until I feel it bite on the sharp spiky crimp. I drop my now free left hand into a positive open-hand side pull and re-adjust my right to a better grip position. On previous attempts I would be struggling a little now, but it all felt so solid still. I did the next small movements and came to the side pull 2 finger pocket that I had slipped out of last attempt. I lock down, slot middle two in and and lower slowly onto a jug out left… SAFE!

Phil looking strong pulling on the slopey rail crimps on "L'escamarla" (7c+)  

Andy is belaying and shouts, “That looked easy!”. It felt fine but I’m not completely safe just yet. There are still two cruxes to go, not hard ones but droppable if you aren’t prepared for them. I shake out for a few minutes, collecting my thoughts, preparing my strategy and focussing on thinking confident. I begin to move into the last part of the route. I get to a quick rest before the second last crux, shake out, breathe, GO! Right Crimp, Left mono, right crimp, campus feet and stand up high, boost my left to the pinch, drop knee and lock to a good jug… Ahhhhhhhh!

 

I’m looking up now and the final bulge is a metre above my head with the chains glinting tantalisingly in the sunlight. After a minute I proceed but back down due to a brief hesitation moving into the powerful undercut pocket. I re-set, shakeout and proceed again… Lock right, undercut 2 finger pocket, 3 finger pocket, lock deep, intermediate bad crimp, go again… JUG! Feet swing off, left hand latches a jug as well! Heel flies over and I clip the chain… WAHOOOO!!!

 

The trilogy is complete, a journey of one sector that has lasted four years and 3 separate trips to Siurana. It started off only the first 3 clips on the 7c+, then the first 7 on the 8b, now all the way for the 8b+. It also turns turns out to be my 11th 8b+ in the last year, and what a year that has been : D

 

I think “Migranya Profunda” is my hardest route to date. Although it didn’t feel anywhere near my limit, nor did I really have any head issues with it, adding the whole route up and comparing to other routes I’ve done in the 8b+ region, it’s pure and simple just harder than every other route I’ve done and a winter of training has prepared me well for it.

 

Phil committing to a powerful move on "L'escamarla" (7c+) Phil and our new friend Simond (French living in Hong Kong) have left now   They have had a good trip to Siurana, Phil ticking of lots of 7a and 7a+ onsights plus a few close 7b onsights. He was also making good headway on a tricky 7c+ called “L’escamarla”. For a week in Spain, this is a really good effort. Phil is returning to the rigs now and will be getting stuck into some hardcore training for Ceuse in July hopefully

 

Andy and I are now on a rest day, we have run out of food and are grabbing a lift of a strong French climber Alizee Dufraise and her dad Philippe who we’ve been chatting to a bit out here. After our rest day, I am keen to check out an 8c called “2 x 30″ and potentially and 8c+ called “Pati Noso” that Philippe and Alizee suggested to me. They both look really good, however I am not big into projecting and prefer to climb lots of easier routes rather than a few really hard ones, so maybe if I do well on “2 x 30″ then we can see where I go with trying “Pati Noso” or potentially some easier routes instead

 

Anyway, hoping to do a bit of filming as well soon on “Migranya Profunda”, perhaps get a good beta vid for anyone who might want it. Stay tuned for more from Siurana!

 

ROBZ OUT

Phil taking the final stretch to the top of "L'escamarla" (7c+). He didn't do it this trip unfortunately, but he'll be back!

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Moving to Can Piqui Pugui
8 March 2012, 10:31 am

Hey Guys

Our first week is through in Siurana already : ( It seems that every morning I wake and hope that the trip isn’t going as quickly as it seems, but trips always do. Its getting to that point now that Andy and myself are noticing our movement on rock is improving and routes we previously saw as being a little out of reach are indeed closer to possibility than we imagined.

Andy onsighted his first 7b yesterday, “Decidit en petit comite” at Can Piqui Pugui sector. He made it look pretty easy and I am positive that its nowhere near his limit. At the same time I warmed up on a 6c+ that last year I thought was 7b+!!! Hardest 6c+ ever in my opinion : P I later warmed up a little more by onsighting the classic 7c+ “Siouxie”. Not the best idea seeing as some of the crimps were pretty damn sharp and it was in the sun

After warming up, I checked out the 8a+ “Gigololo” from the ground, hoping that it could be a potential onsight. Half an hour later I was up high on the route, feeling strong and solid on every move. I came up to a hard move to a pocket but had held the wrong part of a chalked up crimp and my left hand spat off the wall sending me off in an instant.

The annoying thing about Siurana is the unpredictability of the climbs. Compared with places such as Rodellar, Santa Linya, Terradets or Margalef were the climbs tend to be more sustained and endurance based, Siurana definitely holds true to being a boulderers answer to sport climbing. Although the routes are long, they almost always contain a single crux that far outstretches the difficulty of every other move! This is both a curse and a blessing. It means you don’t get ticks just because your fit enough (or even strong enough), you actually have to be good enough to spot the sequence quickly and respond appropriately to it.

The other day I also checked out a potential 8c for me called “2×30″ at El Pati sector. The route takes a first initial bulge that is actually fairly easy climbing, then into a short and hard boulder problem on vicious little razor crimps (V6-ish). After the boulder you do a sustained sequence on small but positive edges with smears for feet into a good sidepull and quarter pad crimp from which you do a wild dyno to a good flatty (Dyno is probably V5 in itself). After the flatty you climb the equivalent of a f7b+ to the top.

Its an amazing route and I am more than certainly going to try and do this soon, however the razors have temporarily held me back on any further attempts (no skin left) so I am going to try different routes until my pads heal. The annoying thing with this route is the consistently wet undercut jugs before the crux that soften your skin before pulling on the shards of glass that await only a couple of moves after : P

Instead I am going to try and do another 8b+ called “Mr Cheki” at Can Piqui Pugui that I spotted after doing “Gigololo” and then possibly another 8b+ next to it that differs in style called “Renegoide”. Andy and I have written out a little tick list to stick to which will allow us to focus a bit better on our goals rather than walking aimlessly out to the crag every morning to try whatever picks our fancy. Once my skin has healed a bit more, then I will step the game up onto 8c

I am not worried about ticking an 8c before I am ready, I would much rather climb lots of fun routes that challenge me in different ways and build my mega pyramid of DOOM!!!

Then climb lots of 8c’s easily :

Still having fun…

ROBZ

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Mr Cheki (8b+)
10 March 2012, 3:34 pm

Hey Guys

Yesterday I did another 8b+ called “Mr Cheki”. This route is in a sector called Can Pigui Pugui, a place I have visited only a few times out of the many weeks spent climbing in Siurana over the years. Although this is one of the more popular venues for those climbing in the f8′s, it never struck a chord with me. Probably because of the relatively short nature of the routes there. I have always been one for big, impressive lines that cover lots of steep terrain in wild dramatic settings. El Pati for instance is somewhere that really strikes me as a beautiful crag… doing a route there is like a stairway to heaven.

In Can Pigui Pugui the wall is beautiful in its own way, it’s shorter by nature but still contains pristine classic lines that have their own unique character. The wall isn’t as steep as El Pati but  still has that dramatic setting. You face outwards into a valley with a huge Ceuse style crag spanning across the full length of the opposing side… stunning to say the least.

The wall facing Can Pigui Pugui! Note: This is NOT bolted for some bizarre reason... The climbing is more powerful in Can Pigui Pugui and strangely enough reminds me a bit of Malham. The routes tend to be more polished and a lot more tweaky with lots of weird twisted pockets and sharp jagged crimps – thats a big part of the package with Can Pigui Pugui.

Felix cruising the starting boulder of "Mr Cheki" The line I was on (“Mr Cheki”) starts up left of one of Siurana’s oldest 8a’s, “Anabolica”. “Anabolica” is the most popular 8a in Siurana according to 8a.nu with around 260 ascents on the database! Whilst I was trying “Mr Cheki”, Andy was checking out “Anabolica”. Needless to say, Andy being the boulderer, he cruised the first 10m to the crux bulge. The hard move here though is very particular and quite tweaky if your not good on pockets. He worked the sequence a bit, a hard lock move to an undercut pocket then a powerful pull through to a crimp then a bump again to a jug. After that its not completely over but not nearly as hard as the previous sequence. Although Andy is more than capable to doing the sequence, the pocket was feeling a little bit tweaky for him so he gave it a rest and decided to come back for it another day.

On “Mr Cheki” I was having a good day. On my first attempt I climbed through the whole bottom section, through the first hard crux and into more or less the final hard moves. Unfortunately my fingers slipped out of a good resting pocket (probably because they were so numb with cold) and I was left to work the remaining sequence in the upper part.

Felix pulling the gnarly pocket on "Mr Cheki" Needless to say I was back on it in short time, this time I fell a little higher again. I was struggling to gain a positive pocket (the last crux for me). I threw for it once (missed), again (missed), again (missed)… DAMN!!!! AGAIN (STUCK), I pulled through but my fingers were so numb (again) that I couldn’t feel what I was holding and slipped out the pocket. This was quite frustrating as you can imagine. The physicality of the route wasn’t a problem, it was more the fact that my fingers were constantly cold.

On my last try I decided to look for a better warm up. A small jug at the bottom of the cliff was all that was needed. After 15 minutes of moving my hands about on the flat jug, changing from full crimp to half crimp to open hand, one arm dead-hangs, pull ups and locks I was ready for it!

In the end, it felt really steady. I wasn’t tired or pumped and my fingers maintained warmth throughout the whole climb. I really enjoyed sticking the hard launch to the pocket, feeling as though there was no way I was coming off. As I locked in my fingers, I pulled through another deep lock to grab the next jug – SOLID! Afterwards there was still one more move where there is potential to fall, but I was confident with my sequence. A german climber call Felix had tried before me and fallen here with his sequence, but I was sure that mine would prevail. After a minutes rest, I moved through the next few moves and was latching the glory jug with only 2 clips of 6a climbing to finish with.

The "Gnarly" Pocket on "Mr Cheki" I lowered to the ground victorious and 15 minutes later, Felix sent the route too! Photos on the blog are of him on his send

With only 30-40 minutes of light remaining, I forced Andy back into belay mode despite his moaning about it being too cold. I wanted to try “Renegoide” (8b+), just to check out the moves before I come back after today’s rest day. Despite being tired after two days climbing and lack of skin, I did all the moves quite comfortably and am pleased with how the moves piece together. The route is very different to “Mr Cheki”, its short but only slightly overhung, very crimpy and very sustained! None of the moves are physically hard, just very involved in your feet and fingertips (skin).

Finishing off "Mr Cheki" as the day turns to night... I’m really looking forward to coming back tomorrow, hopefully to do it quickly and to give Andy encouragement on “Anabolica”! He can certainly do it if he puts his mind into it

Hope your all climbing and training hard out there!

ROBZ



Andy when I told him I wanted another belay...  

Source: Robbie's Blog

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TCA: March Madness – Mini Boulder Comp
12 March 2012, 3:03 pm

Hey Guys

The UK’s biggest (and best) bouldering wall is going to be offering all climbers an amazing opportunity to come test out the facility. Whether you are a seasoned climber eager to test his/her self on some hard boulders or have never climbed before, there will be loads happening throughout the day the is sure to keep you occupied. Plus the best bit is its all totally FREE!!!

The TCA Glasgow is an amazing facility for any climber whether beginner or advanced. I regularly train there to better my skills as a boulderer as the quality of setting and of the walls is of such a high standard. As you will read below, there will be 18 new problems to try for the day, so get yourself there to test your skills out on the wall.

Below is a write up taken from the TCA Blog.

Beginner or Elite… Try Win a Prize This coming Sunday (18th March) is going to be a really exciting one here at TCA.  We are opening our doors to all for FREE!  While the focus of the day is just coming in and enjoying the TCA facilities free of charge, we have a number of other things going on to make it all that bit more interesting.  The first of which is the mini boulder comp.

How does it work? On the day there will 18 brand new problems falling in to the following 3 categories (i.e. 3 problems per category):

• Male & Female Beginner (climbing ability = Purple – Red Circuit: Font 3- 6b)
• Male & Female Intermediate (climbing ability = Red – Orange Circuit: Font 6b – 6c+)
• Male & Female Advanced (climbing ability = Orange – White Circuit Font 6c+ and up)

The competition will be a hybrid format of our  and competition formats and works like this:

• Each problem must be attempted Ground Up (i.e. starting from the beginning each time, no practicing moves) and each hold will be allocated a score.
• You can have as many goes as you wish on each problem.  You then record the highest scoring hold you get to and in how many attempts it took you to get there.
• The person with the highest score over three problems and in the fewest attempts wins.  Simple.

Which category you enter is based on your own honesty and trust but the judges do reserve the right to move people up a category if deemed appropriate.

The great news is that Ellis Brigham have also kindly donated prize vouchers for each category. So it is well worth having a go.

Source: Robbie's Blog

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“Renegoide” (8b+)
15 March 2012, 2:16 pm

Hey Guys

Things are definitely heating up now! The weather has taken a bit of a change, from being pretty darn cold to swelteringly hot. Of course its always possible to climb in the shade, but what we’ve been finding is if you climb in the shade in the evenings, after the rock has had been heated up for the whole day, it still isn’t perfect conditions. I would gladly be getting up at 6:00 am to catch the perfect temps, but thats not so easy when your belay partner is Andy “still on bar night shift sleeping patterns” Latta (thats a long middle name!).

It’s not so bad though, I was happy the other day to tick of yet another classic 8b+ called “Renegoide”. Only a couple of days after ticking the burly, boulder beast “Mr Cheki” (8b+) at the same crag. This route was very much a different style to the other climbs i’ve done already. “Renegoide” takes a nice orangey blue line up a slightly overhung face (10 degrees at most), climbing on small half-pad crimps that are more or less razor blades most of the way. It reminds me of climbing on the main wall (justice panel) at Ratho, very sustained, little or no rests and what would no doubt make Neil Mcgeachy, the king of endurance, pee his pants in excitement!

The day I did “Mr Cheki”, I had a very brief play on the moves just to sort out in my head what I was doing. The next day I got stuck into it. I was surprised that after some skin had grown back, the holds felt so much better and I actually made a 2 halves link on my 2nd try. This was no doubt going to go quickly, the only issue being that my skin was getting ripped apart by the sharpe edges and nodules that you bear down on. I decided that a rest day was in order to try and regain some skin for a better attempt – that night I even pasted on a layer of anti-hydral to try and dry out the skin a bit to give it more bite on the nasty crimps.

Resting... Andy and I came back to the crag, this time with a friend of ours, Michelle (Danish) who I have to thank for the excellent photos she took. After warming up on a nice 7b, I went for “Renegoide”. That day turns out was the hottest day this year and the rock felt like it was melting! Equally my skin felt like it was melting on the rock, but incidentally, the moves still felt really good. During the crux move at around half-height, I could feel my fingers peeling away from the rock, the holds were so small and slopey here that the heat really wasn’t doing me any favours. I pressed on regardless and made it to the rest just after the crux moves. I felt really good physically, not pumped or tired, just hot! I was wearing a beanie as well which didn’t help the heat situation. Stupidly I didn’t cut my hair before leaving the UK and its becoming an increasing nuisance whilst I’m climbing… much better to just hide it under a hat

I pressed on into the second and third crux, still feeling really solid, finally making it to the last few tricky moves. I rested on some small but positive crimps, eyed up the remaining moves and committed to the 6m run-out to the next clip. In the video below you’ll see Alizee Dufraisse climbing “Renegoide”. The point in which she clips the chain and lets go is after the run-out, unfortunately, she didn’t realise that the route isn’t over here and that the two clips there are only 3/5 up the wall! But thats a fair mistake, I did the same thing first time up there.

So after making the scary run-out, I then continued to the top (another 15m of 6c-ish climbing). Not hard, not blow-able really, but a little scary technically after having climbed the lower part and not wanting to fall now of course. There was a moment pulling through the bulge at the top when my hand hold broke in one place at the same time as a foothold broke… this was at the end of a 6m runout as well… I may have peed myself slightly

Scary run-out!!! Finishing off at the top of the wall was a great feeling again, especially after climbing something so different in style to the other 8b+’s i’ve done over the last year… Numero 13 – TICKED!

Andy and Michelle decided to go for a 7b onsight after my climb. They fought valiantly, Andy making it more or less into the final hard moves, but unfortunately to no avail. Michelle and I discussed the importance of failure on routes i.e. it’s only by failing do we really learn. This got me thinking about my own performance in the day, had I really learned anything from “Renegoide”? I have because I had previously failed and overcome it, but I still felt that the day wasn’t entirely satisfactory, I needed to fight something harder and get beaten up a bit!

I decided to try and onsight an 8a I had heard was quite good. It was called “Un rato en cada Postura”. I route read it from the ground, spent some time visualising the route, then went for it. In my opinion, this was my best performance of the trip. I fought for it, tooth and nail! I wasn’t going to let go unless I really had nothing left. I made mistakes, but I pulled through them, it was a good onsight attempt, but i didn’t succeed. I fell staring a jug in the face and moving to a good crimp where my foot popped on a bad smear. I was boxed out my nut and deserved to fail, but I was happy to have given it my all. I pulled back on, did the next move, grabbed the jug and climbed the remaining f5 climbing to the chains 5m above me. I felt even better after reading comments on 8a.nu, usually referring routes as being “soft”, but instead this was all “HARD!”. Always a confidence booster that

Engaging in the crux of "2x30" (8c) So after a good day at Can Pigui Pugui, I decided I need to up my game. I got on the 8c at El Pati called “2×30″ and managed to do it in two halves – bottom to crux and crux to top! This is fantastic and it was only my second time on the route. The crux is bloody hard, a dyno of a good sidepull, bad feet and a tiny micro edge crimp to a good flat jug, but i’m psyched now and I know i can do it  I am also psyched by the route at Can Pigui Pugui “El Membre” (8c) after I’ve done “2×30″ and potentially “Pati Noso” (8c+) if I have enough time, but we’ll see

For now, I’m going to relax, maybe eat a nice omellette bocadillo whilst watching a film and climb tomorrow!!!

ROBZ OUT



 

Source: Robbie's Blog

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My First 8c “2×30″
18 March 2012, 6:59 pm

YAASSSSSSS!!!

So I’ve finally ticked my first 8c  To be honest, probably from a severe lack of trying more than anything. I haven’t really been focussed on ticking 8c, I prefer to consolidate a grade before jumping ahead of myself. This style of attack at climbing improvement in my opinion is much better than simply throwing yourself at harder and harder climbs, so this 8c for me came at the right time. I had just climbed my 13th 8b+ of the last year (a good consolidation number ) and it was definitely time to step it up a notch.

The route, as most of you may know already, is called “2×30″ or “Dos por Trente” in Spanish. It takes an amazing line in the hardest sector at Siurana, El Pati. To give a little bit more understanding, you know where “La Rambla” (9a+) is? Well its directly right of that!

So down to the route then… Overall the climb took me 9 attempts. Doesn’t sound like very much, but it was actually about 4 days of effort. I couldn’t really have more attempts in a day since the holds (being so small and crimpy) just wore away at your skin. The first 10m of climbing is very easy, only about f6a/b ish up a small bulge for the first 2 clips then into a kind of bridging corner to gain the second bulge. Here is where it starts – from the top of the corner, you shake out and chalk up ready to do battle with the beast. The initial moves through the bulge are easy, pulling on good sidepulls to gain a couple of juggy undercuts that take you to another slopey jug and undercut before pulling into the first crux. The only issue with the jugs here is that they are more or less constantly wet, a really annoying factor to take into consideration seeing as the crux moves coming up are on very small quarter pad crimp edges that dig deep into your pads, ripping the flesh literally from your fingertips (tasty).

The first crux I reckon is about V6 (F7A) in grade. It comprises of 8 moves, all of which individually aren’t that hard, but combined become pretty spicy. The crux move in this sequence is a powerful lock around 7 moves in that relies on a hard press on a sharp crimp to gain a very small and painful left hand press a bit higher up – from here you can quickly shake and move out to a small one finger half pad crimp, then cross into an uncomfortable mono. The nasty bit about the mono is that you have to use it to smear your feet up on bad footholds in order to pull towards the next hold, a much better crimp up and right.

The hardest bit about this route is that although the individual moves through this first section and the upcoming section aren’t hard, they do drain power from you which is what then holds you back for the following crux. After gaining the crimp from the mono, you can shake briefly before pulling into a short sustained section of around 7 moves until the next crux. Again none of these moves are hard, but they are awkward to rest on and drain you a little before the meaty crux move coming up.

Engaging in the cross-through gaston move at the first crux of "2x30" (8c) Finally we arrive at the mother of all cruxes! This I think is the hardest single move I have done on any route. The move itself is a powerful yard of a good side-pull for your right and a wide apart crimp out left. The issue is that the next hold is miles away, and you have only really bad feet that are exceptionally high to push off. This basically means a wild jump for the flat jug. It’s hard to grade a single move, but for me, combined with the sequence leading into it, possibly I would say another V6 (F7A) bloc. I fell on this move three times on link from the bottom before doing it (the time I actually did the route).

This single hard move is what makes the route 8c, without it I would say f8b or soft f8b+. The problem is the severe low percentage-ness (is that a word?) of the move. You could stick it first time or fall of 300 times! On 8a.nu, a few strong climbers said hard for the grade whilst others said soft. It’s a hard one to debate when it comes down to a very specific move thats low percentage even when disregarding height – if your small the holds further away but the feet are better, if your tall the holds closer but your feet are lower on smears and you have to jump!

To the chains from here the climbing is probably only worthy of around f7b+, but its not as easy as it sounds. The following moves after the jump are tricky of bad crimps and small footholds (a friend of mine fell of here on the link). Then after a rest from doing that, you do quite a tricky step up of another small crimp into a flat juggy sidepull (another friend fell here on the link). I am so happy that I didn’t fall in this last section otherwise I may have just cut the rope  (only joking… I think?).

After getting the good sidepulls, you can chill a bit before an awkward move to another crimp and a pull through to the next good rest. Here it is almost (but not quite) over. You have a really amazing rest, but still one last section of f6c/7a climbing with some balancy climbing and a few throws to good (but not that good) holds. You turn the bulge, matching on a positive sloper/edge then rest up before the victory climb to the chains.

Wow! What a route  I must say I am pretty chuffed with myself having climbed such an amazing line in Siurana. The climbing was brilliant even though the rock quality could quite easily be called choss in places  I am a little worried about one of the footholds… it moves a little too much for me to be 100% happy with its solidity to the wall.

Getting psyched before the final attempt! I am hoping to get footage and pics to follow of me climbing this amazing route (as well as others I have climbed and have yet to do) so stay tuned for those. What’s up next though? Well, I really want to start consolidating 8c like I did with 8b+. There are two 8c’s in Siurana that I really want to do, one called “El Membre” and another which a friend, Daniel Jung, has proposed I try called “Lola Corwin”. The only issue with these are that they are in sectors that currently neither Andy, Geek or Jonny are that keen to go to. I’m not bothered though, I’d much rather chill with them for the time being. Instead, I am going to test the water on 8c+ and work the moves on “Pati Noso” (8c+), the left-ward variant to “2×30″. This shares the starting sequence as well as the jump move, but instead of f7b+ terrain to reach the chains, it looks more like f7c+/8a, possibly harder if I believe what half the folks around here are saying :/

Anyway, psyched for whatever is coming up next! Here’s to 6 more weeks in SPAIN!!!!

ROBZ OUT

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Siurana HURTS!!!
31 March 2012, 5:46 pm

Hey Guys

Sorry for keeping everybody in the dark these last two weeks, in truth I have been a little lacking in inspiration to write a blog. I haven’t ticked anything since doing my 8c “2×30″ – the day after I did it I got on the 8c/+ variation “Pati Noso”, almost ticking it on my second time on the rope! But after getting that high point on the route I also pierced a hole in my pinkie, which then made climbing through the crux impossible for me… This was really frustrating seeing as how I had made such a great first attempt on the route, so instead of doing further damage I opted for a double rest day.

Stuart creeping closer to the steep bulge on "Crosta Panic" (7a+)  

After two days rest, my hole had still not healed and out of haste and my ambition for 8c/+ glory, I taped up and went for it. After warming up on a 7b+, blood was leaking through the tape and I was forced to take further rest. Two days later and there was still no improvement. It’s been pretty tough dealing with this bad skin injury, it doesn’t seem to heal like normal cuts. From chatting to other climbers in the campsite, I reckon the puncture was just really deep and that it will inevitably take a lot longer to heal.

 

After another couple of days rest (bringing us to yesterday), I decided to get back on “Pati Noso” and see how the skin held up. On my first attempt of the day I fell on the last hard move, pulling the easiest move of the final boulder problem to the jug. My foot popped as I stepped up to grab the hold – another frustrating attempt. The pinkie held out a while but from pulling on the crux shards (they can’t be described as holds) my cut was oozing plasma. I wiped my tears (because I’m a big boy now) and went on for a second go.

Stuart grinning behind the roof of "Crosta Panic" (7a+) Stuart + Mhairi gearing up below "El Cargol" Pillar Amazingly I felt even stronger on this attempt and I was gunning for it now until… disaster struck! I pulled on a small spike low down after the two initial cruxes and my right index finger burst open, showering blood on everyone below. Funnily enough, I didn’t even notice it happen and continued climbing until I realised that there was a serious lack of friction coming from my right hand – so I dropped off with my head in my hands wondering why this is always happening to me.

Looking back on it now, I feel a bit ashamed with the way I was acting. As somebody who is always striving for perfection in climbing and constantly pushing their boundaries, it’s sometimes easy to lose grip on reality. I put so much pressure on myself to achieve, to hit higher and harder grades and it’s easy to forget that there is more to climbing than just ticking of numbers (even though it’s a highly motivating factor).

 

Someone who really inspired me here was a new friend of mine, Felix, from Germany. He is only a year or two older than me, but he’s been climbing since he was very young, competed on the world stage and has a long history of being a top climber both nationally and internationally. The way he approached climbing was refreshing and pretty inspiring to see. He really seemed to enjoy just going climbing, being at the crag, having fun on the routes. He put little pressure on himself to succeed yet he still came out and cranked 8c+, 8c as well as numerous 8b+’s and two 8b onsights/flashs. It was humbling to watch, as I built pressure barriers for myself on “Pati Noso”, he just cruised it practically dancing his way to the top.

Mhairi pulling the bulge on "Crosta Panic" (7a+)  

As I was inspired with his approach, he too was inspired by my dedication and focus to training and improving. Felix was ranked 2^nd in the World in Beijing behind Magnus Midtboe a number of years ago, so he has already lived the training lifestyle and now I think he puts less pressure on himself to achieve, but just as Sharma says in the “King Lines” movie – You have to want to achieve in order to do so, but not so much that it causes you to fail due to pressure (a concept I have struggled to put to practice recently). But in the end, that’s what it’s all about really… when your balancing at the edge of your peak performance, so do you have to start juggling with more variables. Just like in real life, if you juggle with more balls you’re bound to drop them, but only by challenging ourselves with more do we get better!

 

Anyway, right now I am nursing my skin back to health and eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Welsh friends whom I am coaching with this week. The first week of the coaching trips this year is with some top Welsh kids and the second week is with the Scottish kids that I do 1:1’s with back in Edinburgh – it will be good to see how they are progressing with all their hard work and training.

 

The campsite now is buzzing with Scottish accents. All my friends from back home have arrived and are dominating the crag. Neil Mcgeachy and Jonny Stocking arrived last week whilst the rest, Calum Forsyth, Neill Busby, Gary Vincent, Stuart Burns and Mhairi Thorburn arrived earlier this week. Also Jonathan Field arrived last night and today a friend from Ireland, Lucie Mitchell, arrived today. And tomorrow my Welsh friends Simon Rawlinson and Liz Collyer are arriving – WOOP WOOP! IT’S ALL HAPPENING IN SIURANA!!!

Mr Daniel Jung sporting his blue fuzzy boxers - he climbed "Estado Critico" (9a) a few days later swearing that the boxers give him the 9a POWER!  

Even if I’m not climbing much over the next week or two, I certainly won’t be short of company

 

ROBZ OUT

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Siurana Coaching Weeks (Wales + Scotland)
18 April 2012, 3:36 pm

Hey Guys

 

I haven’t actually been on the Internet in around 2 weeks now! I’ve been focussing all my energy on coaching in this time so I apologise if you’ve been trying to contact me for whatever reason and have been unable to.

Neil Busby hanging out in the roof resting jug on a tricky 7c at Margalef  

Some people reckon coaching is an easy game, you just rock up to the crag, belay a bit, throw up a few top ropes, basically climb all day, then go back to the campsite and chill out… Well I’ve got news for you, it certainly isn’t that hard  Well it’s not that hard if you love it… the last two weeks for me have probably been the most enjoyable weeks of my trip even though I’ve barely climbed anything for myself in that time. Sure I managed a few cheeky belays at the end of the day and there are always your clients rest days that you can climb on, but after focussing solidly on their needs and wants for whole days at a time and using all your energy to see their goals and coaching requirements met, it does leave you a bit drained.

 

In the last two weeks I’ve done a couple of nice 8b’s. One was 2^nd go after coaching the Welsh kids (cheers to Liam Fyfe for the belay) and the other was after a particularly draining day shouting five Scottish kids up a 40m 7a+ pillar.

 

My first week coaching the Welsh was unfortunately very wet. After the driest spring in the last 5 years (according to locals), as soon as the Welsh stepped of the plane, dark clouds came from nowhere unleashing a hellish storm upon the Siurana crags. It was a bit of a washout to say the least, but despite not perfect conditions, they still got a good week of climbing in. I was working mostly with two young boys, Cai and Fin (Bishop-Guest). These two brothers were awesome climbers and good friends. What impressed me most about the two of them was their fierce attitude to supporting each other – when one trying something hard the other was supporting them in a die hard (A Muerte) attitude. By the end of the week, Cai had ticked off a couple of classics including “Viagraman” (7a) and “Crosta Panic” (7a+) as well as getting nail bitingly close to flashing the Siurana beast “Bistec de Biceps” (7b+). What was even more impressive was Fin nailing two 7a’s on lead after never having lead harder than 6b before!

Matthew looking for monos when every hold around it is a jug!  

During the second week of coaching the weather was quite a bit better but not without the odd shower (and hail storm). This time I was coaching as part of the MCofS’s annual Spain trip alongside fellow Ratho coaches Neil Mcgeachy, Neill Busby, Gary Vincent and Calum Forsyth. Also appearing as coaches where Jonny Stocking, Ross Kirkland, Tom Bolger, Lynne Malcolm and Mark Mcgowan. This is the second time the trip has run and in my opinion was even more of a success than last year. The trip was fully booked with 25 kids attending including not only Scottish, but English and even one German kid.

 

Every coach was given a group to work with for the week, my group being those that I do weekly 1:1 sessions with at Ratho (because I know their levels and needs best). Those in my group where:

 

• Sam Harland-Sendra (12)
• Robert Davidson (12)
• David Miedzybrodski (11)
• Connor Moore (10)
• Matthew Fall (9)

 

The Lads (exception of Matthew who had left already) The aim of the week for my group was for each of them to achieve a grade goal specific to them, a feat of 20 climbs clean (bottom to top whatever grade) and to have fun! Everyone had already achieved the last goal the minute they saw the crag (aided further with Connors iPad games). All of them were eager for 7a outdoors since they had all at least achieved this indoors. I was also keen to get them to lead a few climbs whilst out here. I was not so worried about getting them leading hard outdoors just yet, there is time for that in future trips.

David, usually quiet and content shows his dark side days into the trip  

Sam redpointing the mega classic 6c with a name too long to remember  On the first day we were heading to Can Marges, a good easy-ish sector (lots of 4’s, 5’s and low 6’s) when disaster struck! Andy, Matthew’s dad tripped awkwardly on a steep path fracturing various parts of his leg (specifics I’m not sure on). The trip was off to a shaky start – we had to get paramedics in to take Andy off to hospital and little Matthew was left with us. A number of the parents left with Andy whilst the rest of us took the kids climbing to take their minds of the mornings mishap.

 

The days climbing turned out spectacularly though – all the boys ticked off a number of classics and even perfected their re-threading skills under my watchful eye. What was most impressive was at the end of the day, David and Sam flashing the uber classic 6c “El tiempo se ha reido de los que no han venido”.

 

On day 2 we headed to Espero Primavera sector in the morning, climbing yet more classic lines such as “Espero Primavera” (6a), “Tan San Fot” (6b+) and “Berberechin Fibrao” (6b+). Later in the day we headed around the corner to the main sector of Siurana, El Pati. I showed the boys the mega hard lines such as “Kallea Borroka” (8b+), “2×30” (8c) and “La Rambla” (9a+). They then got stuck into some potential projects of their own. Sam, Connor and Matthew tried “Viagraman” (7a) whilst Robert and David attempted the 35m long mega beast “Ay Mamita” (7a). In an amazing turn of events, David set the standard with an impressive (and very surprising) flash of “Ay Mamita”. This was his first attempt at a 7a outdoors and he flashes it!

 

Connor fighting on the 6b+ at Espero Primavera  

 

Day 3 of the coaching was depressingly wet, but that didn’t stop us Scottish  We got rained of the wet slabs at Grau dels Massets in the morning, then headed to the single dry overhang of “El tiempo se ha reido de los que no han venido” (6c), which David and Sam had already top rope flashed on their first day. Connor and Matthew were super keen to do this redpoint having already tried it on the first day and since it was the only route dry, we all headed back to try it.

Espero Primavera is one of my favourite sectors in Siurana not simply because of its beautiful climbing, but also the setting  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the end of the third day, David and Sam both succeeded in leading the route whilst Robert, Connor and Matthew al top-roped it on redpoint.

 

On day 4 we headed back to Espero Primavera under the assumption that if it rained again, we would have more than one or two routes that were dry (being one of the only crags in Siurana guaranteed to stay out of the rain). In the morning, Connor and Matthew made impressive lead ascents of the ultimo classico 6a+ flake “Marieta de l’ull viu”. Sam and David also did this (Robert was resting) as well as a top rope onsight of the hard 6b+ slab “Lamparos toca el Dos”.

 

After warming up there, we swapped places with Busby’s group and took on the mega routes at El Cargol (the pillar). The boys had all tried at least one 7a this trip but with the exception of David, none had made an ascent. I was eager for everyone to achieve their grade goal of 7a in the next couple of days but I was unsure of what to get them on.

El Cargol Pillar - 40+m of mega sustained climbing! On the right you have the 7a+ and on the left a 6c+ - two of the best pitches I have ever done!!! I ended up putting a top-rope on the 40m pillar 7a+ “Purgandus Populus” with the notion that because its mega long, perhaps the moves won’t be so hard. In truth it was definitely sustained, but with two obvious cruxes, one low at around 15m height (above the chain of the first 6a pitch) and another high in the last 10m of climbing. The upper crux wasn’t too physical but still very blowable whilst the lower crux required fresh fingertips and some power reserve for the powerful locks between small pockety edges.

Sam on the start of the 6c+ flake on El Cargol - You begin the adventure within the pillar itself, clambering out of it, onwards and upwards into the sky!  

Upon climbing the route I have to say that its probably one of the best pitches I have ever climbed, whilst the 6c+ to the left probably stands out as being the single best pitch (with the exception of “Tom et je ris”) I have ever done. I watched in total astonishment as David and Sam walked up this route (not without a fight) in good style, their first 7a+ flash and first attempted of the grade outdoors. Connor and Matthew next up fought hard, Connor even managed to make it to the last crux before falling, but unfortunately they were left without the tick by the end of the day.

 

2/5 of the boys had ticked a 7a or harder, only 3 to go. Everyone had climbed at least 13/20 of their total number of routes to climb clean, so we were well on our way to achieving the trip goals.

 

Day 5 was aimed at finishing of goals, Matthew had to leave unfortunately as his dad was leaving early due to the leg injury suffered on the first day. Connor was leaving that night and still had a 7a or harder to tick as well as 7 routes clean before the end of the day. David and Sam only had 5 routes to tick before they reached 20 clean routes – an impressive fact to behold was that David hadn’t actually fallen of a single route during the whole trip, I don’t think I was pushing him hard enough

 

I really wanted to see Connor get his 7a tick if possible, so the night before we viewed video footage of him climbing the 7a+ “Purgandus Populus” in an effort to suss out the beta and get him up it clean on redpoint. Early on we warmed up at a new sector I hadn’t been to before called A Can de Can a Prop. We where pretty disappointed with this sector to be honest, it didn’t have the nicest routes and we got pretty wet when it started to rain. We rushed away to El Cargol after getting wet so that Robert and Connor could get on the 7a+.

 

Today was truly Connor’s day… he went for “Purgandus Populus” early on but due to the rain, the first 6a pitch had gotten wet and he fell off on easy ground. It took some effort to get Connor’s mind focused for the route, he was starting to get major redpoint nerves (I could tell having had them a lot before myself). I managed to get him psyched up for another attempt – it went well until the first crux when he hesitated far too long eyeing up the jug he was meant to be going for, he powered out, then fell… Frustrated Connor lost a lot of confidence, but after a while he got psyched again and went for his third attempt.

 

David on the 6c that he later lead! Connor’s third attempt at “Purgandus Populus” was one of the most inspiring ascents in climbing I have ever seen. Connor is only 10 years old, yet his determination, drive and focus to keep fighting and never give up was as strong as I’ve seen in climbers with more than his lifetimes experience climbing on rock. There were moments when he hesitated and forgot the sequence, yet he never let go… he battled and battled up the wall, fighting for every move as if it might be his last. He fought his way through all the cruxes up until the very last move of the very last crux, I saw him hesitate, eyeing the jug as he had before on the lower crux one attempt before – but this time was different, he knew what he had to do. In one powerful pull and a power scream to match he launched for the jug, latching it in a vice like grip fueled by adrenaline and lactic acid! If I could give a fight half as much as what Connor had given that day, I think I would have climbed 9a a dozen times by now  His effort has inspired me to try harder than ever on routes and that’s saying a lot! Connor topped out on the pillar, successful and exhausted after around an hours fight.

It's tough being a kid - Robert struggles to reach the first holds on the 6c even with cheat stones!  

The funny thing is, after half an hours rest he was up for more, still with five routes left to tick before heading home. Robert was next up on the pillar, making an impressive flash on “Purgandus Populus” after Connor’s ascent giving us 4/5 7a+ ascents in the group – not bad for their first rock trip

 

To finish off the day we all headed to one last crag, L’Aparador, to get some last minute easy routes done before everyone went home. Connor got the rest of his routes ticked (just) to make 20 clean climbs, as did the other Sam and David. Robert had missed out on two days climbing but still left with 13 climbs under his belt – Not too shabby

 

So that was the end of my two coaching weeks. I had hoped that by now my skin would have healed up, but unfortunately I am still having issues with it. I did a couple of 8a’s the other day as a mileage day to see how they fared. In all honesty, on 8a’s my skin is fine because I don’t really have to weight the holds too much but as soon as I step it up onto 8b’s or harder my little cuts and splits just open up wide bearing sore fleshy innards. I attempted “Pati Noso” (8c/+), the route that started my skin problems early on in the trip, but after reaching the first crux it tore another hole in my right index pad. I think it’s time to give it up for this year. The route felt well within my grade at the beginning of the trip having almost ticked it second try, but now with all the skin problems it brought, my confidence has dropped dramatically and to be frank, I’d rather go climbing than spend my last two weeks nursing my fingers before one more attempt at a route that will almost certainly split them all open again.

 

There are three 8b+’s in Siurana that I would like to do, so perhaps I will see what I can do with them after a few days rest. I am now looking forward to coming home and getting back into my routine of training and coaching before my next trip to Ceuse in July. When I get back I have the Ratho European to look forward to which hopefully I will be route setting for, the YCS Finals soon after and various Team Training days I am organizing.

 

2 MORE WEEKS!!!!!

ROBZ OUT

The best face of the trip - Matthew grins and bears it on the gnarly 6c at Can Marges!  

 

Source: Robbie's Blog

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“El Mon de Sofia” (8b+/c) – A Mental Game!
28 April 2012, 9:11 pm

Hey Guys!

 

I’m coming to a close on this years Spain trip. It’s all gone so fast, it seems like only yesterday that I was heading out with Andy in the plane and now it’s almost over L. I’ve had a really great time climbing in Siurana this year both in terms of personal climbing and with my friends those new and old.

 

This year’s trip has certainly been an educational one for me. Although I ticked the hardest grade I’ve ever climbed, I definitely got my butt spanked on a few other routes of different styles proving yet again that being proficient at a grade is incredibly hard. Style comes into play massively as well as confidence and mental strength – an area that I am going to be training specifically from now on.



I climbed another 8b+ yesterday (my 14^th at the grade), this one called “El Mon de Sofia”. This route is relatively new to Siurana having only been bolted in the last 2 or 3 years and was previously deemed as 8c? in the older guide. The locals give it the awkward grade of 8b+/c, so either it’s a hard 8b+ or soft 8c.

 

Moving on from grades for now – the route takes a spectacular line up the blank looking faces and bulges of El Pati (left-side). It starts up the same first bolt as “2×30” then branches immediately out right into fun compression moves on a weird bulge feature. Once your at the top of this you can sit down and relax on a nice little ledge (to here it’s probably about f7a).

 

Above you now is a daunting barrel wall with a tough little crux starting on the first move and ending at a rest one move before the second crux. The issue with the first crux is that a lot of the holds are permanently wet! The rock seems to soak in the moisture really easily and a lot of the holds feel like damp sponges from which your hands could grease off instantly without warning (something I got a bit of experience in whilst red-pointing).

 

Although the holds are damp, they are all positive. The main difficulty of this crux lies in the feet and the one awkward, slightly dangerous, clipping position that you have as the first clip halfway through the initial moves of the crux. Funny thing was I never fell of this section, but I was always very wary of the potential to. The first clip was right above a ledge, which if you fell clipping would more than certainly send you straight into. The next moves where tricky and off balance, then you had one last slap for a wet crimp before you pull yourself up into the two wet side-pull jugs that you rest on (LOVELY!).

 

The rest here was good, you were standing on one good foothold and a smear for your left with a good side-pull jug for your left and a slopey side-pull crimp for your right that you laid back off. I could definitely recover more or less fully but it certainly wasn’t the most comfortable of rests.

 

Me attentively belaying Ross on an 8b After resting up, you head straight into what I would call the meat of the route. Although probably not physically the hardest moves, it’s a very sustained crux with lots of little technicalities and slightly lower percentage moves than you would like, especially seeing as when you get through them you still have to deal with the hardest moves on the route! The second crux involves a couple of soapy but positive crimps, the last of which you have to do a hard pull to reach a big damp gaston jug in the steepest section of the bulge. You gaston with your right hand from which you can then clip, match, then re-adjust to an undercut which gives you the position to reach up with your left hand to a really good slot. From the slot you step your left foot up on a little button then push and pull as hard as you can to make the big move to the next soapy crimp up and right. You are now entering the hardest section of the crux, a powerful move to a small sharp crimp with your left, then a stab with your right into yet another small crimp, gaston left, press, then up and right to a small flat edge, left to a thumb sprag crimp and press out right to a jug… WOOOOOOHHHHH

 

You’re now in the “Please don’t blow it territory”… although you still have the most physically demanding move still to come, it’s right after a massive rest so theoretically you should be ok. Unfortunately, conditions where not on my side the first time I arrived at the rest. It was stiflingly hot and humid, and when I made the hard move to the shallow crimp, my fingers rolled off it like they were covered in butter! Thankfully I didn’t let that happen second time round

Ross engaging in the crux of "Pati Pa Mi" (8b) on El Pati  

After the crux move you still have some tricky moves to go, nothing that you should fall off but there is definitely foot popping potential still there and the second last move is quite a big lunge for a flat side pull that’s hard to catch (that was scary!).

 

Nat on "Pren Nota" (8a) - Video coming soon... “El Mon de Sofia” took me around six or seven goes in total spread across three or four days. For me, this was more of a challenge than “2×30” for the sheer fact that there are just so many places to fall off. It’s not as sustained but the potential to fall of at the top is a lot higher. On “2×30” you could fall of at the crux a load of times, lower off, have 10mins rest, then get back on it (one time you’ll do the crux and go to the top). With “El Mon de Sofia” it felt like I could fail in the middle crux a lot as well as fall in the final crux!

 

Doing this route in the last week of the trip after having a long period of relatively no tickage was a big boost in confidence. I had lost a lot already from having failed on “Pati Noso” (8c/+). In all honesty, I kind of gave up the ghost on that route a long time ago. It was trashing my skin every time I got on it and I felt like I wasn’t getting to go climbing much because of that. I am intending on coming back next year to finish it off, this time I know what I need to do to do it, all I have to do is come back, armed with another year of training and smash it to a pulp!!!

 

This trip has been a massive eye opener once again into the world of the mental processes involved in climbing. I have seen many climbers fail due to pressure, whether it’s on one specific route, or a number of routes or just expectations. I have come to realize that in order to achieve the best results and climb to your best abilities, you need to have a strong mindset that has been built to deal with the pressures you put on it. I know I put a lot of pressure on myself, I am very open about wanting to improve and achieve higher and harder year after year. I think being like this does leave me open to personal performance demons, but this is something I can train for sure.

 

In the last few weeks I have been working hard on a presentation on mental training that I will be providing for youth competition climbers when I get back. Work on this has allowed me to spend a bit more time than I usually do thinking about this side of the performance table. I am already putting steps in motion to develop a really good mental training program both for the kids I coach and myself. I have known for years just how important the mental game is, but sometimes it’s easy to forget to train it when you get so caught up in the other aspects of climbing that seem more important (but really aren’t).

 

Stay tuned on the training blog as I will be writing up some mental training blogs soon enough.

 

On one last note, I tried the 8b+/c direct to “El Mon de Sofia” called “Project Moro”. It shared the first and second crux but takes a much more sustained line than “El Mon de Sofia”. I actually think it might be one of the best routes I have ever tried! After the second crux you get a good rest on some flat jugs, then head straight into a technical crimpy section before reaching another OK rest (shared with “2×30”) which sends you into the crux, a powerful sequence on undercuts and crimps finishing off finally with a very techy, sequency finale with little rest right until the lip of El Pati, 40m in the air! AMAZING!!!

 

I’m gonna climb tomorrow if it stops raining soon and see maybe if I can do the variation either then or in the following days of the trip… We will see…

PSYCHED!

 

ROBZ OUT

 

 

 

Source: Robbie's Blog

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“Project Moro” (8b+) – A Surprise Ascent
30 April 2012, 3:47 pm

Hey Guys

Just a quickie seeing as I blogged quite a bigg’un the other day

Well, you know how I said I was off to try this variation on “El Mon de Sofia” (8b+/c) called “Project Moro” (8b+/c)…  It was really funny actually. The weather had been rather bad during the night, very stormy and wet. Nat and I woke up to wet bags and shoes in the opening to our tent as the zip to our door has broken  A little annoying, yet another reason to pass my driving test and buy a van! As the weather had been bad, we suspected that the crag may be wet and that waiting until the afternoon might be a better idea. I was keen just to have a rest day and climb our last two days on. Come around 13:00, Ross really wants to get down to the crag and try his project, “Pati Pa Mi’ (8b). I pointed out that now the sun is out it might be a better idea to wait until the evening and perhaps get some better conditions then… I saw the frustration in Ross’ face as he really wanted to go down, so in the end we decided to just head and see what was happening at the crag.

On arrival, what ever had once been wet was now dry thanks to the sun, the only issue being both “Project Moro” and “Pati Pa Mi” were in the full blast of it and it was pretty darn hot! I decided in the end to just go for it as I wasn’t 100% sure what I was doing at the top having only been on the upper section once before. One thing to note before I go on: I have been reading a number of good books recently on sport psychology and have been attempting to build myself a better, stronger routine to help settle any nerves or doubts before redpoint attempts. Before getting on, I ran my routine and got zoned in to what I was about to do. I repeated to myself the words, “Just Climb”, over and over to focus myself less on the outcome and more on the process.

I climbed the first section easily, using it as a warm up. The second crux, shared with “El Mon de Sofia” felt tough, but despite this I got through it with the phrase “Just Climb” ringing in my head. I looked up and saw the start of “Project Moro” looming above. I was resting out on a couple of two finger pockets and saw the mega rest of “El Mon de Sofia” out right but thought that taking that would be cheating, so instead I pressed on through a technical, easyish section to reach a couple of flat jugs before the route really starts. As I looked up from these, I got nervous again thinking of the outcome, so I controlled my breathing, slowed my heart rate and focussed on the phrase “Just Climb”. Suddenly I felt better again, all thoughts of failing or any outcome for that matter drifted away like bubbles. I pressed on into the next moves, higher and higher I got, and more and more pumped! I managed to stay tuned into the sequence but made a few errors that I was able to quickly correct.

I reached yet another rest on some undercuts just before the crux sequence. Thoughts drifted in again:

“I’m pumped, the crux is here, what if I fail? I’m so tired, maybe I should just take a rest on the rope?”

I knocked them out quickly with my mantra and foucssed again. What was wrong with giving it your all and failing. I think I would feel worse if I knew I could have tried but didn’t. It got to a point where I was just pumped and not recovering, so I pressed on into the crux, ready for battle! An amazing thing happened suddenly, I was climbing, I was pumped but I wasn’t receding. Thoughts were all positive and I felt like I was going to do this. Before I knew it I was through the crux and mantled on a small foothold with some small crimps to rest on. I was 35m up and 5m above me was the chains, I could just about see them over the bulge. I knew I still had one major crux to go, not as physical as the last one but still very droppable, and as well as that, to get to the crux you had to do quite a bit of techy climbing on small smeary feet and crimps in the blazing sun.

Ye Olde Route Map  After another 5 minutes I pressed on, reaching through the smeary feet section and into a quick rest on two pockets before the last crux. My mantra continued to echo in my head and like before I was confident and positive in what I had to do, “Just Climb”… So I did just that. It was hit or miss for a split second, but those words got me through it. I only just sketched my way up the last 5m of “Project Moro”, but it doesn’t really matter, I still clipped those chains!

As I clipped them, a sickening feeling hit me and I suddenly realised that I had climbed more or less 25m of 8b+/c terrain whilst being totally boxed, in the sun and under constantly restrained stress… I heard whoops from across the valley as English friends celebrated my top out.

I think that was my biggest battle in climbing yet

PSYCHED

ROBZ OUT

P.s. Ross also climbed “Pati Pa Mi” (8b) later that evening after attempting it in the blazing sun – sometimes conditions help

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Everything up until now…
13 June 2012, 2:31 pm

Hey Guys

 

I haven’t updated the blog since Spain for one reason and another, the other being I’ve been mega busy (which is a good thing). A number of things in particular have taken my attention from blogging but all equally which would fit well into a blog, so here it is…

EYS’s

 

The big event was of course the European Youth Cup being held at Ratho. I was part of the route setting team for this event along with Neill Busby, Neil Mcgeachy, Gary Vincent and visiting head route setter and French National Coach, Paul Dewilde.

 

Luke Tilley on Paul's 8b+ (Stolen from Alpkit blog  ) It was a mental week filled with 17 hour long setting shifts streaming into the early hours of the morning. I was mainly working with Buz whilst Gary and Neil worked together to set their respective routes. Paul was on his own for the week and focused his efforts entirely on the Male Junior Final, a gnarly 8b+ on the new comp wall.

 

Buz and I had a fun week setting (as it always is when we work together). We set three routes as a team and Buz managed an extra when I had to take a day off to visit my Dad in hospital (another added bit of stress to the week when my Dad was hospitalized after he caught pneumonia).

 

Both Buz and I were happy with the routes we set both in quality and their performance in the event. For any competitors reading this, Buz and I set:

 

Youth B Girls Qualifier: Black/Orange 7c (New Comp Wall)

Youth B Girls Qualifier: Yellow 7c (Old Comp Wall)

Youth B Boys Qualifier: Green 8a (Old Comp Wall)

Youth B Boys Final + Junior Girls Final: Yellow 8b (New Comp Wall)

 

Dominic Burns (Youth B) on me and Buz's final (Stolen from NIYCT Blog) The two girls qualifiers worked excellent and provided a perfect contrast to each other, the black/orange being steep, burly and powerful whilst the yellow being vertical to slightly overhung most of the way on small edges, balancy moves and very sequency beta. What was interesting whilst watching two young British superstars climbing them was how they provided the perfect all-round challenge to the kids. Young Molly Thompson-Smith did very well by topping the steep orange/black 7c which suited her style but unfortunately fell halfway on the Yellow whereas Tara Hayes topped the yellow and fell on the orange/black. The two contrasting styles challenged different kids in different ways, exactly what we want to do in a competition i.e. who is the best all round, not simply who is the best in one style.

 

Angus focussing... The Youth Boys found our 8a really tricky and only saw one top in the whole event! This category for me was the most exciting as I had Angus Davidson and William Bosi competing in it (two boys I coach). Angus did amazingly well for his first international event taking 17^th place overall. Of course he wasn’t happy with this but it’s all about getting the experience in Youth B for building up in later competitions.

 

William Bosi totally blew everyone away with an outstanding performance in the same category placing 6^th place overall. It was exciting watching him on the final Buz and I had set for their category. I had no idea how he would do on the Yellow 8b. It was super sustained with a few powerful moves thrown in and little to no rest. Watching him in the final though was exhilarating to say the least. He just kept going, higher and higher, until he had surpassed my expectations and continued firing upwards to the top. He looked so comfortable moving through each section I honestly thought he would just top it! In the final roof he rested and just before moving to the next hold his foot popped and that was the end. It was frustrating seeing that but equally exciting to see how well he did in his first European. It’s also worth mentioning that he was the youngest in the category (1997-1998) being born 27^th December 1998. The top guys were a year or two older than him.

 

Since Edinburgh EYS, Angus, William and I have been training hard together and they have returned from yet another EYS, this time in Voiron, France. They did fantastically well there again with 21^st and 18^th respectively, a good ranking for their first international away from home.

 

Edinburgh Coaching

 

So away from international events for now, I’ve been continuing my work with local kids, regular 1:1’s and organizing events here and there. The YCS final is coming up in the next couple of weeks and I have a large contingent of my local 1:1’s gunning for this. Sam Harland-Sendra (11) and Leo-Harland-Sendra (7) are two brothers I coach on a weekly basis who have both been training hard recently. Sam has been knocking down 7a+ very regularly with a few onsights at this grade as well as a lot 2^nd or 3^rdgo. Leo on the other hand, his training is a little less intensive being only 7, but his commitment isn’t any less.

Me and Leo on the boulders training! He has taken out his first 6c+ onsight which he was delighted with and in a recent YCS Prep Day event run by myself, Nat and Ross Kirkland, he demonstrated yet again why he is regional champ with a solid performance onsighting everything but one 6c route that he fell on the last move (he beat all but the top boys in the Youth D + C Category!).

 

Aberdeen Coaching

 

As you know I work a lot with kids from the north east city of Aberdeen as well. A week or so ago I headed up there for a massive day working with all the local beasts, specifically prepping them for the YCS Final which most of them will be competing in. I was also lucky enough to have the current Scottish Boulder Champion Scott Keirr assisting me for the whole day. I have been working with Scott on his own performance over the last year as an additional assistant to his climbing alongside John Brown (local boulder beast and coach). One thing Scott has been talking about is getting into coaching, so I have taken him on as my apprentice coach to give him some experience. He is mega keen to develop his coaching abilities as well as his climbing which I am mega psyched about, this means Scotland will have another top coach to work with our kids.

 

All the Aberdeen lot were on form and seeing their new wall built by Scott Muir at Dream Walls, NO WONDER! They now have a fantastic new training wall which should help them massively to build on their already strong climbing abilities.

 

Three kids in particular that I have seen massive gains from over the last year are Rory Cargill, Rebecca Kinghorn and Ben Findlay. Rory is a training animal and always gives 110% to everything which as we all know pays massive dividends. Rory competed in the Youth Colors at Imst a few weeks ago which although it isn’t officially a European Cup Round, it might as well be called that for Youth C and below. He placed an amazing 17^th overall but apparently on the second day was 12^th.

Scottish Champion - Rory Cargill  

Rebecca is a total machine and she will do amazing in whatever she goes for. She is Scottish Bouldering Champion as of the Scottish Bouldering Championships held at TCA a few weekends ago and is competing in the YCS Final next week. We had a session together at EICA a week ago where she was looking solid on 7a/+.

 

Ben Findlay is younger still than these two being in Youth C. Ben has transformed into his own climber over the last six months. He used to be just your everyday kid climber who comes in, does a few routes then leaves. Now he comes in with a plan, he’s focused and he knows what he’s aiming for. The best thing about it is you can see he wants to improve, but he also loves the whole process of getting better and always pushes himself hard. He came out to Spain with us and despite never having been on a 7a in his life, went for it and learned a lot from the experience.

 

My Own Training

 

Enough about others, more about me!!! My own training has been going well. After Spain I decided to lower the volume slightly and up the intensity. I’m doing a fair bit of fingerboard and finger strength specific bouldering but mainly I am hitting it hard on circuits with a few routes in and around them. I’ve ticked all the routes in Ratho apart from two 8b’s and an 8b+ and one of the 8b’s I am saving for an onsight attempt later on in the month. I did Gary’s 8b from the comp 2^nd go and got high on the onsight too which I was pretty happy with – it felt quite easy actually, you can rest a lot on it because the holds are all positive, the crux section is the ending sequence where I fell on the onsight (red volume), it’s just a bit sequency. Nat fell on the last moves of it the other day too so if she does it then she will have the second ascent  I do get that psyched for indoor routes!

 

I am feeling fit at the moment and pretty strong so hopefully it will transfer onto rock when I hit up Yorkshire over the coming months. I was hoping to go to France this summer but with all my work currently I might have to hold out until next year. I do have Kalymnos in October and I am contemplating going for 2 weeks before coaching to try and tick an 8c+ I like the look of there, we will see

 

Anyway, I promise to keep things more up to date from now on – I have a few videos to post soon too so stay tuned!

 

ROBZ OUT

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Malham Cove Youth Crushing!
18 June 2012, 11:17 pm

Hey Guys

For all those gracing the Malham catwalk last weekend you will have noticed a slightly higher concentration of youth climbers pulling on the harsh polished limestone routes than usual.

Malham on the first day... This was because the MCofS had organised an Elite Coaching day at Malham and I was down there coaching. We had two days climbing altogether (and an evening for myself and Nat on Friday) and in that time every kid did seriously well.

The team included:

Angus Davidson (Team Member)

William Bosi (Team Member)

Alex Waterhouse (Team Member)

Eleanor Hopkins (Team Member)

Rebecca Drummond (Top Scottish Youth Climber and Aspiring Team Member)

Eilidh Vas Payne (Top Scottish Youth Climber and Aspiring Team Member)

Robert Davidson (Top Scottish Youth Climber and Aspiring Team Member)

A dry catwalk during the rainy Saturday Everyone with the exception of the last three had been to Malham before, but for those that hadn’t, Malham blew them away with both the high quality and quantity of climbing available. Most of these kids are too used to going outdoors at crappy local quarries, however when confronted with the beautiful, towering cove in Yorkshire, they were gob smacked!

When Nat and I arrived on Friday evening, we rushed to make the crag before the sun set so we could get a cheeky few climbs in before work the next day. On arriving we met up with some old friends we met last year climbing at Malham, Jordan and Naomi Buys. It was good seeing friendly faces after a year since our last trip. I was keen to try out “Bat Route” (8c) whilst Nat was just happy to be climbing out on rock and decided to try whatever took her fancy.

Engaging in the crux (V6) of "Bat Route" 8c First attempt on “Bat Route”, I climbed to the first anchor without a hitch (“Seventh Aardvark” 7b) and then sat on the bolts to figure the sequence out. Luckily I had Jordan below me shouting beta which always makes things easier. When I got acquainted with the hand and foot holds I went for an attempt at the first crux. I think in it’s own right, the first bloc is probably about V6 (F7A) – you get a good rest on a sidepull jug above the chains on “Seventh Aardvark”, then do a tricky move with a high right foot into a small sharp broken undercut crimp with your right hand. From here you stick a heel in the lower jug, shake your left hand briefly before moving into a positive undercut crimp with your left. You then step your left foot into a smear, pop your right foot up onto a spike and drop your knee to hold you close so you can move your right hand into yet another undercut crimp (much better now) before moving your left into an even better undercut crimp (Lots of undercuts – Welcome to Malham). This is the controversial bit, from here I move straight into the big jug out right from which I can then get a good kneebar no hands rest and chill before the next section. Most people it seems go to a small tooth before moving to the jug, however I found it easier to go straight into the jug (happy days).

Eilidh having fun From here I found the rest quite OK on it’s own. The only move I really struggled on was after the rest, you do a tricky boulder crux with a dynamic move to a positive crimp then a hard throw left to catch a jug with really bad feet. I found it awkward more than anything but all I need really is a little practice and I’m sure it won’t feel hard on link. From the end on the initial V6 bloc it’s probably 8a to the top, very do-able in my opinion. On the Sunday I got another attempt which first time on I linked straight through from the ground to the rest and had to come down as the rest was wet (hopefully in a few weekends time I will come back and get some better links with a dry headwall).

Alex making use of the Crusher Holds Wood Grips The Kids had much better success on their routes. On the first day of coaching we selected our warm up routes and I set up my new Crusher Wood Grips so the kids could keep warm throughout the day without trashing skin on easier climbs. The warm ups were the usual suspects of course:

• “Rose Coronary” (7a)
• “Consenting Adults” (7a)

After warming up, some of the kids got on some flash/onsight attempts whilst other got on potential projects. Alex did incredibly well with an impressive flash of “Free and Even Easier” (7a+), whilst Eleanor repeated “Rose Coronary” and then attempted “Free and Even Easier” as a redpoint. Rebecca got stuck into “Consenting Adults” (7a) and quickly depsatched it before moving on to working “Seventh Aardvark” (7b).  Eilidh meanwhile started work on “Consenting Adults” (7a) alongside Robert whilst his brother Angus attacked “New Dawn” (7c) and William bolt to bolted his way up “GBH” (8a+).

Angus on "New Dawn" (7c) The most impressive ascent of the first day has to go to Alex who grabbed the chains on “Raindogs” (8a) with only one attempt working the moves that day – BEAST!

William on "GBH" (8a+) Angus and William looked very strong on both their routes. Angus struggled a lot with the lower crux of “New Dawn” but had the rest dialed whilst William got every move on “GBH” after work. Both were looking good for some good redpoint attempts the following day had it not been for the cascading waterfall coming down the tops of each route on sunday

Well it wasn’t quite a waterfall but a wet hold at Malham isn’t anything to be happy about. It wasn’t just their routes though, “Bat Route” was sodden on the upper half so I could only attempt up to the end of the first crux. At the end of the last day I got one attempt at it and was pleasantly surprised to link from the bottom all the way through the crux. This was really good for my first attempt at it and I’m super psyched to go back and finish it off!

Alex grabbing the chains!!! DISPATCHED!!! Meanwhile, Eilidh was trying to finish of “Consenting Adults” (7a), so I ran over her tactical game play for the route i.e. rest points, check points and what to focus on in each section. Needless to say, Eilidh went on to cruise up it without much effort. She is definitely capable of climbing a lot harder!

Rebecca and Eleanor were going well on “Seventh Aardvark” at the same time and before long, Rebecca made the first ascent of the day followed closely by Eleanor minutes later. They then started work on the vicious “Something Stupid” (7b) that Alex had flashed earlier on in the morning. Alex was going well on his second day at Malham, choosing volume over intensity as he went about climbing all the mid 7′s on the central wall with the likes of “Something Stupid” (7b), “Rated PG” (7a+) and “Bongo Fury” (7b) included in the list.

“Raindogs” now had a wave of pre-teen attacks on it with Angus and William now focussing their efforts on this thanks to the rain. Also on the wet dog mission was young Aiden Dunne who had been working the route for the last few weeks. I encouraged/forced Aiden to give the boys as much beta as possible, but after watching him use all the non-holds most people avoid I thought it might be better to just let William and Angus figure it out on their own

William on his incredible flash attempt Angus did really well and within a couple of goes was making it to the resting point half-way. William did phenomenally well on his flash, failing high up between the 4th and 5th clip. On his way down after working the upper section he then blamed me for not allowing him to wait two years so he could on-sight it  The arrogance of youth… but actually I think he probably would just on-sight it if he had left it a couple of years

Aiden then went on to despatch “Raindogs” in a brilliant performance that silenced the crag as he climbed. He then became the youngest Brit to climb 8a being only 12 years old! William and Angus are both keen to come back and finish it off sometime in the coming weeks, but for now we are focussing on their next competition in Lintz, Austria!

I chalked up like this... OH YEAH!!! By the end of the day, everyone was knackered and skin was growing thin. We finished up at 15:30 for the drive north, quite content with our weekends climbing. For both myself and Nat, we had a pleasant stay at Malham not burdened with the usual pressures of our own projects and happily content just to help the youth of today get some mileage on rock – thats not to say that Nat didn’t get some climbing in too though. In usual style Nat cruised basically everything she touched with on-sights of every route she tried up to 7b and the only route harder than 7b she did try was “Bat Route” on which she looked more than capable of doing on her attempts through the crux! Maybe something for the future after she’s back fighting fit from injury, studies and her year abroad

Anyway, this is a big week for me now. Last minute preps for all the kids leading up to the YCS finals and I’ll be working with some southern Irish super Wads on Sunday

PSYCHED!!!

ROBZ OUT

P.s. All photos nicked off Phil Waterhouse’s Facebook  I’m sure he won’t mind

Alex on his final attempt at "Wasted Youth" - I think his fingers were reduced to stumps by now

Source: Robbie's Blog

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YCS Finals – EICA: Ratho
23 June 2012, 11:37 pm

Hey Guys!

Busy day at Ratho (330 competitors!!!) What a day it’s been. I’ve been at EICA: Ratho all day manning the Evolv boot demo stand whilst simultaneously coaching my kids taking part in the finals of the YCS. It’s been pretty hectic and I can’t quite put into words just how tired I am, it’s a miracle I still have energy to write blogs and post pictures (although I just did down 8 Oreos with a glass of milk, that might have given me something extra  ).

David Miedzybrodski getting ready to demo! So, today is the day that 330 kids around the country have been looking forward to since the regional rounds finished. For Scotland that was earlier in the year (back in February) so for them it has been a longer wait. All the kids that I coach regularly have been training really hard for this day and I can say without a doubt that the rewards have more than certainly been reaped from their hard work.

Leo fighting the final route! I got to the wall with Nat early in the morning to set up the stall for the boot demo. Most of the kids had arrived even by then for registration and warm up. I quickly got set up and then began my hunt for as many of my padawans as possible. Everyone seemed fired up and raring to go, there were a few signs of nervous excitement but nothing that posed too much of a worry. Everyone just seemed really happy to be at the final and to be competing with friends in such a fun and motivating environment. The atmosphere of Ratho was exhilarating to say the least, when you bring together so many psyched young climbers the aura of the place really blossoms.

Sam happy after a good performance The kids that I coach regularly who were competing today included boys and girls in most of the Youth categories. To save writing a post of epic proportions of every detail from today I will put the end results below followed by a few key moments from the day:

E (2003-2004)

• Leo Harland-Sendra (Boys – 2nd)
• Ben Milne (Boys – 8th)
• Emma Davidson (Girls – 5th)

D (2001-2002)

• Matthew Fall (Boys – 13th)
• Thomas Ryan (Boys – 20th)
• Ben Findlay (Boys – 32nd)

C (1999-2000)

• Sam Harland-Sendra (Boys – 4th)
• Max Milne (Boys – 11th)
• Rory Cargill (Boys – 15th)
• Ewan Davidson (Boys – 21st)
• Rebecca Kinghorn (Girls – 1st)
• Rosie Mackley (Girls – 23rd)

A (1995-1996)

• Scott Keirr (Boys – 1st)
• Jack Gomersall (Boys – 16th)

 

In Youth E, young Leo was attending his first ever YCS final. I coach Leo and his brother Sam at Ratho most weeks and I can say without a doubt that the pair of them certainly have it in their genes. Their dad is french (which I reckon is where their awesome technique comes from) and they have a brilliant head for comps (apart from when Sam goes in a huff  ). Leo did fantastically well placing 2nd and considering this is his first ever YCS Final, it’s some achievement! It was really inspiring watching Leo flash all the boulder problems and do so well in all the routes. His style is very similar to that of top european competition climbers i.e. fast, strong, efficient. He doesn’t waste any time and was probably the fastest of all the competitors on the field.

Spot The Difference

 Sam in Youth C beat his previous result from last year (24th) by coming 4th! He wasn’t just 4th, he was 1 point of 3rd place podium finish which is an excellent improvement from last year. The most impressive part of this was his comeback after fluffing up his second qualifier route, something which he was more than capable of flashing but made some little errors that cost him the top that would have placed him strongly in 3rd position.

Scott happy with his victory! I think though that although Scotland South won the team position against Scotland North, it was Scotland North that devastated the competition with three winners which I think might be a record for them?!?!?

Leo happy with his first ever YCS Final performance (2nd place!) Scott Keirr (YA), Rebecca Kinghorn (YB) and Rebekah Drummond (YA) all came away with 1st place podium finishes. Scott has been focussing solely on his bouldering which I gave him a training program to follow for. His next big comp is the BBC’s which he is hoping to crush and show the British Bouldering Team Managers what he is made of. Rebecca Kinghorn in usual style creeped her way to the top in a slow but strong style. Her ability to lock on tiny edges amazes me! And finally Rebekah Drummond has proven that hard work and training pays off as well as an insatiable hunger for success. Winning the YCS was a big goal for Rebekah this year and since she started training, she has been making massive steps to becoming the top female climber in Scotland – lets see where she takes it from here

Rebekah chuffed with her victory in Youth A Girls - What's next for the young climbing prodigy? In the end, there were no tears, maybe a few disappointed faces but everyone improved from previous results which is all we can ask for, that and to have fun  I’m now as psyched as ever to see were all these amazing youth climbers are going to take their climbing in the next year – only time will tell…

 

ROBZ OUT

TOP RESULTS + 

SCOTTISH RESULTS

 

GIRLS E

• Emily
  
  Verry
• Emma Futcher
• Robin Casey
• Caitlin Storie (16th)
• Katie Moore (20th)
• Rachel Eadie (26th)
• Stephanie Millar (28th)

BOYS E

• William Wakefield
• Leo Harland-Sendra
• Sam Lavender
• Ben Freireich (7th)
• Ben Mine (8th)
• Louis Langlands (10th)
• Evan Rasmussen (12th)
• Miles Davis (22nd)

GIRLS D

• Sienna Wong
• Rhiannon Freireich
• Lydia Wright
• Keri Maclennan (4th)
• Emma Davidson (5th)
• Holly Davis (22nd)
• Roxana Elgar (26th)
• Emma Halliwell (30th)
• 

BOYS D

• Flynn Thomas
• Rory Whyte
• Elliot Verry
• Rhys Langlands (5th)
• Matthew Fall (13th)
• Thomas Ryan (20th)
• Evan Davis (31st)
• Ben Findlay (32nd)

GIRLS C

• Rebecca Kinghorn
• Grace Fidler
• Isabella Hough
• Kirsten Taylor (4th)
• Keira Farmer (8th)
• Amy Ryan (11th)
• Claudia Charlwood (13th)
• Rosie Mackley (23rd)

BOYS C

• George Morris
• Aiden Dunne
• Cameron Mcloughlin
• Sam Harland-Sendra (4th)
• Max Milne (11th)
• Robert Davidson (14th)
• Rory Cargill (15th)
• Ewan Davidson (21st)
• Dougie Fraser (33rd)

GIRLS B

• Micky Banert-Lucas
• Ellissa Bryant
• Chloe Ross (joint 3rd)
• Kate Seaborne (joint 3rd)
• Emily Eadie (9th)
• Eilidh Vass Payne (9th)
• Megan Saunders (14th)
• Jodie Brown (22nd)

BOYS B

• Peter Dawson
• Jamie Rankin
• Luke O’Dwyer
• Ivan Bialy (21st)
• Jamie Peden (28th)
• Calum Hall (30th)

GIRLS A

• Rebekah Drummond
• Ellie Rymer
• Christie Macleod
• Sophie Fitchett (12th)
• Kaitlyn Garratley (22nd)

BOYS A

• Scott Keir
• Orrin Coley
• Dean Taylor
• Malcolm Bradley (12th)
• Jack Gomersall (16th)
• Fraser Mcilwraith (19th)
• Matthew Harvie (25th)
• Alexander Bosie (29th)

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Cork Youth Climbing Club Coaching
24 June 2012, 7:57 pm

Hey Guys

Today was another fun day at the big EICA. After all the excitement from yesterday I was unsure of how many of the kids would be there for a second day… turns out a lot! Nat and I were coaching a big group of Irish kids who had come through for their first taste of Ratho and the YCS Finals. None of these kids had competed before and most had only been climbing for a year but they were all mega psyched and keen to rip up the walls of Ratho.

CORK YOUTH CLIMBING CLUB The format for the day was to cover good warm up tactics for competition, get a bit of practice on-sighting on the long Ratho walls, have another go on some of the routes and boulders from the comp, and finally listen to me lecturing on the mental zone (a presentation I ran for the Elite Team earlier on in the year).

The kids in the group today included 5 young beasts from Cork, David, Luke, Cormac, Hannah and Yasmine. It was good seeing the level these kids have achieved with relatively little experience climbing and with such small facilities in the south of Ireland. I think this speaks volumes for the support they get from their parents and coaches who work with them regularly i.e. Damien O’Sulliven and Neal McQuaid.



David was older than the rest of the Cork crew and was climbing at a really high standard. In Youth A David placed 11th overall, pretty awesome considering he hasn’t been climbing that long. I watched that day as he continued to impress looking very close at on-sighting several 7c’s and 7b+’s as well as giving the super final (8a) that was never used a good blast at the end of the day!

Cormak, Hannah, Luke and Yasmine all had a fantastic day too. We started of with some on-sight practice on a cheeky 6b that they all got very high up on before falling with the exception of Yas who attempted a fun 5+ and did really well.

Later in the afternoon, I ran a presentation/lecture on the mental zone, a topic quite close to my heart. Sport psychology is something i have great interest in and its been fun implementing all that I have learned to the coaching of young climbers. The Irish kids grasped the concepts I was discussing well and I think it will make a big difference to the way they view competitions, climbing and performance on a day to day basis.

Altogether this has been a good weekend and meeting the Cork crew was excellent. I am hoping that we can build a good relationship between the Cork Team and our Scottish crew for future training events and competitions

ROBZ OUT

 

Source: Robbie's Blog

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Robbie - OK if I split the posts on grading Bat route etc into a separate thread?