A busy weekend

This saturday saw the first round of the 2014 British Tooling Series at Beacon Climbing Center in North Wales. The British Tooling Series has evolved from the popular Scottish Tooling Series, which has been running north of the border for a few years already.
The Beacon put on a great show, with additional excitement thanks to it also being their 20th birthday weekend. Happy Birthday Beacon! The day saw, in addition to the tooling comp, a fun boulder comp, a talk my Tim Emmett and Will Gadd and an Indian meal.
The dry tooling competition took place on 8 qualification routes. These were a combination of routes using Alpkit figfours and normal axes and had something for all abilities.

Qualifying

There was a good turn out on the day with some old STS faces as well people new to tooling and others that are just starting out in competitions.
After all the competitors had tested themselves on the qualifying routes it was time for the finals. There were two finals routes, one for the female finalists and one for the males. Both of these looked thin and sketchy and generally pretty hard, but what else would you expect being set by the master of sketchy climbing himself, Nick Bullock.
The female finalists were Anna Wells, Katy Forrester and Megan Beaumont, while the male finalists were Tim Mueller, Will Woodhead, Matt Pigden, Dave Bowes, Scott G and myself. I was second to last out so I didn't watch any of the female finals, however the competition was won by dry tooling guru Anna Wells. I didn't see much of the mens finals for the same reason either, so we join it at my attempt.
Walking out of isolation I didn't know how everyone had done, so I just had to do as well as I could. There was no time limit for the final, it was just who got furthest, which suited my slow style of climbing. I made very slow progress up to the last hold on the route, which I ended up ripping off while getting into a position to clip the lower off. Scott was last up and climbed the route with ease, but got the rope caught around a hanging pipe, causing terrible rope drag. This eventually caused made him to fall off. If it wasn't for this I'm sure he'd have won, but it in the end my attempt was just good enough to win it. DMM very generously donated a rope for each of the winners.
The British dry tooling scene is a really cool thing to be involved in at the moment with loads of psyched climbers. Its shaping up to be a really good series and started in fine style at Beacon Climbing Centre. Get involved!
Despite being really tired from the comp on saturday I was not done with competing for the weekend. Sunday was the British Fell Relays, held on Middleton Fell, just north of Kirby Lonsdale. I was running as part of York Knavesmire Harriers A team. The other team members were Neil Stabbs, Chris Roberts, Giles Hawking, Tom Ratcliffe and Simon Collins.

Mass start for leg 1

The race was in 4 legs. 2 short legs, run first and last, a long leg run second and a navigation leg run third. I was on the final short 10k leg.
The race started at 10am, and about 3 hours later it was finally my turn to run. The rest of the team had put me in a good position, although we were never in contention to win we could achieve a respectable position.

Knavesmire (yellow and black) at the end of leg 2

The weather wasn't great for my run with strong winds, low cloud and rain on the tops of the hills. Despite this I tried my best and brought Knavesmire home in a respectable 57th place, running my leg as the 50th fastest.
It was all together a good weekend, although I was very tired on monday morning!
There are a distinct lack of photos for the amount of text, but I was busy doing things.

A Busy 2014

So I have been sort of neglecting my blog recently but this has mostly been due to me being really busy!

Kandersteg

I have loads to tell you about, but I will be brief to avoid making it into too much of an essay.

Team GB in Romania

During January I competed in the Ice World Cup in Korea, Romania and Switzerland. Despite me never challenging the top climbers at all I have learnt loads, had so much fun and made loads of new friends.On my travels I have also been to some cool mixed climbing crags. We were shown a newly bolted crag in Romania and then went to Kandersteg whilst in Switzerland.

Saas Fee Structure

Saas Fee Qualifiers (Photo Credit: Matt Pritchard)

Romanian Qualifiers (Photo Credit: Anna Wells)

My best performance was in Korea where I just went out there and climbed as I didn't have a clue how I was going to do. Hopefully next year I will be selected for the team again and I can do a bit better!
After returning from Switzerland I went straight to the BMC international meet. This was a week were UK hosts, of which I was one, showed loads of foreign climbers around the winter scottish highlands. I didn't really get very much done as I missed the best days to go to university but I did manage to climb The Seam, Unicorn, a new route in the Cairngorms, DTS Spirit and Fast and Furious in my wellies (well I took a victory whipper from the final hold on this).

The Seam (Photo Credit: Piotr Sulowski)

Unicorn (Photo Credit: Piotr Sulowski)

Unicorn (Photo Credit: Piotr Sulowski)

F+F (Photo Credit: Piotr Sulowski)

Since the meet I have managed one day out on Ben Nevis where I climbed Route 1 with its Direct Winter start.

Route 1 Direct Start

In addition to my ice axe related adventures I came joint first, with a very strong boulderer, in the Edinburgh Universities bouldering competition last week held at the CSE climbing wall. I was quite surprised at this since I haven't rock climbed very much at all in the last month or so.

Competing at the CSE (Photo Credit: Steven Barnes)

My 2013 climbing year

So 2013 is now at an end an I think I can safely say that it is my most successful every year of climbing. I have managed to achieve personal best in all disciplines in climbing but also had some amazing days out and experiences.

Trying extra hard on Seal Song

According to my UKC profile I have ticked 459 climbs in 107 days out. The days out is definitely an underestimate as there have been a number of days when I have failed to climb anything at all!
2013 started off quite badly as I dislocated my elbow at the start of January and missed the Ice world cup! It could only really get better from here really.
Winter climbing is the way I usually start and end a year. This current winter season has been good for me so far. I have climbed personal bests with Cornucopia (VII 9) and Sioux Wall (VIII 8). My favorite winter day would have to be doing Orion Face and Tower Ridge on the same day back in April. I even managed a first ascent in Stob Coire nan Lochain with Alex McMillan in March, called Seattle Grooves.

Sioux Wall

Cornucopia

Ravens Edge

I have also done a lot of drytooling in 2013. Although I haven't improved my red point grade, despite being close, I have managed to flash/onsight a couple of M9's. I also managed to keep my hands on second place in the STS, loosing out to Peter Holder by one point!

Newtyle

I haven't really climbed too much trad this year but what I have done I have enjoyed. In May I managed to onsight my first E5, a route called The Quickening at Reiff in North West Scotland. In July I managed to climb another E5 at Dumbarton rock near Glasgow called Physical Graffiti. In June I made a trip to the Hebridean islands of Pabbay and Mingulay with some friends from university. I really enjoyed the trip and the highlight of it was climbing Voyage of Faith (E3) on Dun Mingulay on our last day. My favorite trad route of 2013 is quite close between Wuthering (Stanage), Empty on Endorphins (Reiff), Golden Fleece (Reiff) and Big Country Dreams (Cambusbarron).

The Quickening

Wuthering

I spent most of the summer driving around Northumberland bouldering, although I did manage a few trips further afield. The highlight of the summer has to have been climbing Sprung at Bowden Doors, my first font 7c! It is easy for the grade I know but you have to start somewhere don't you. I have done so much bouldering this summer so its hard to pick out my favorite problems. In June I managed to climb Spank the Monkey at Cambusbarron, which is one of the best boulder problems I have ever climbed, and its in a grotty hole in the ground which makes it even better. Similar in setting, but completely different in style, is Gloom at Rothely in Northumberland. I loved working this problem and was so chuffed to manage to climb it in July.

Gloom

I managed two problems this summer that I have tried a number of times before. These were Little Pixies (Back Bowden) and Si's Arete (Almscliff).

Si's Arete

Little Pixies

My last bouldering highlight comes from a crag just 15 minutes away from my flat. I finally managed to climb the Low Black Wall Traverse on Edinburgh Sailisbury Crags!
I have done a little bit of Sport climbing too, but this wasn't very impressive or interesting so its not really worth talking about. I even went to the Alps but its the same story there.
To finish of the year I have been selected to for the newly formed British Ice Climbing Team and will be competing at the 2014 Ice World Cup!

CAC Festival of Ice Final

I should also thank those who have supported me throughout the year. Firstly I should thank Outdoorkit.co.uk who have been supplying me with kit to test and review. I should also thanks Scarpa for some new footwear to see me through the coming winter season and Schmoolz for making me a pair of fatter indoor ice climbing tools. Red Goat and Rock City climbing walls, in York and Hull respectively, should also get a quick mention for supporting my climbing throughout the year. Also a massive thank you to everyone that I climbed with this year!
2013 has been my best year for climbing so far, and hopefully I can build on this for 2014.

Drytooling Pilgrimage

This weekend I went on a bit of southern drytooling pligrimage visiting crags in both England and Wales.
On Friday morning I left Edinburgh for the Lake District venue of The Works with the idea of trying Greg Boswells new route Power Dab. I was to meet up with Andy Turner and Pete Holder there.
Power Dab gets D13, the hardest grade given to a dyrtooling route in Britian. It shares this grade with a route at Newtyle. I wasn't sure what to expect of the route. It looks super powerful with big moves, not usually the thing Im good at.
On only my second attempt on the route I managed to get all the moves done in 3 sections. I find the crux to be pulling onto the head wall after the roof. Andy managed to climb the route on his second attempt of the day bagging the second ascent!
That evening I made my way further south to the welsh tooling venue, White Goods, near Ruthin. The weekend was the annual White Goods Tooling meet organised by Dave Garry.
On Saturday I met up with others from Scotland; Steve Johnston, Neil Silver, Simon Yearsley and many others. I managed to flash White Goods (D8+), Jaz (D8) and Doorstep Challenge (D8+). I had a go at a new link up, which still hadn't been climbed at the time. It took a traverse line starting up Tumble in the Jungle and finishing up Ready Steady Hook. I had a good go but I took a big fall whilst clipping moving through The Finnish Start.
On Sunday I went back to The Works, this time with Pete Hill, to have a go on Power Dab again. I managed to decent link on it but I didn't have enough guns to finish it off. In the end I climbed Outfield (D7) and Lakes Ethics (D9+).
Hopefully there will be some pictures to follow!

STS Round 4, Glenmore Lodge

This weekend saw the final round of the 2012 Scottish Tooling Series. It was held at Glenmore Lodge, near Aviemore. I drove up on Friday night with Andy Laing. Andy stayed at the bunkhouse in Aviemore but I had managed to get a floor space on a friends floor at the lodge.
As I was at the lodge I was ready abit early so helped with clearing snow from the bottom of routes and moving things around.
The qualifying routes were held on the granite towers outside and inside in the climbing wall. The cold weather meant that the towers were covered in snow which gave everything a very wintery feel.
I climbed with Cassim Ladha as my usual partner, Pete Holder, wasn't able to make it.
All the routes were really good and varied so credit should go to Mark Chadwick and Steve Johnstone for setting them. 
I managed to flash all but two qualifying routes. I got Stevies fig four hanging board route on my third attempt, the only person to get it on the day I think, and I didn't manage to get the torquing route at all. I managed to pick up a further 3 points on the campus challenge. This gave me a qualifying score of 138 points, putting me into second behind Andy Clark.
Along with Andy and I the rest of the adult male finalists were Cassim Ladga, Scott G and Gareth Wignall. Before it was our turn to go into isolation it was the turn of the veterans and juniors to battle it out on their own final route. By the looks of it it was a bit too easy as almost everyone managed to top it.

Stevies Fig Four monster (Photo Credit: andrewrutherfordphotography.co.uk)

Before the adult male final the adult females had their final on the same route, all be it with slightly different rules supposedly to make it easier, although I'm not convinced it really did that much. Fiona Murray won this with Louise Humphreys in second and Karen Macintyre in 3rd.  
As I qualified in second I was the second to last person to try the route. I got a bit nervous hearing everyone else try the route, as we are kept in isolation so that we can't see how each other do it. When it was my turn I tried to climb quickly but carefully so not to get pumped and not fall off thanks to a silly mistake. I got to the final hold on the route without too much difficulty but this is where the battle really started for me. All I had to do was clip the final chains and I done the route. This turned out to be easier said than done and I hung around swapping between fig fours and nines for ages trying to reach up to the clip and then recover enough to have another attempt. This was just a bit too much for me however and I ended up getting too pumped and letting go of my axes.

That final clip on the final route (Photo Credit: andrewrutherfordphotography.co.uk)

This was luckily just enough to win, as Scott dropped his axes before matching the final hold, despite clipping the chains. By competition rules I won, however in real life he ticked off the route and I didn't, so he was very unlucky.
This was the first climbing competition I have ever won so I was really pleased. This result also meant that I have managed to retain my Scottish Tooling Series overall second place, which I also got last year. I'm really pleased by this as I only lost out on 1st place by 1 point, instead of 10 last year. Scott came 3rd with 58 points.
After every competition I have tried to be critical of my performance and try and assess what I need to improve on. Here is a list of things I need to improve on:
1. Core strength
2. Dynamic moves
3. Not letting my feet stupidly slip off
4. Endurance (if only I had a little bit more I may have been able to clip that quickdraw)
5. Clipping
6. Matching
7. Reading routes

I'm sure there are more but this a good start I think. 

STS round 3

This weekend saw the 3rd round of the STS. I was wanting to do better than round 2, were I came 5th. The competition was held at RGU in Aberdeen. Unfortunately thanks to the rather modest size of RGU there wasn't a final, so everything rested on qualifying.
I managed to get a clean round, getting 140/140 points. It was quite an easy competition as a few people did, including Scott Grosdanoff and Steve Johnstone, but it is still a good 20 points to add to my final series total. 
On Sunday I went to Newtyle Quarry with Andy Laing and Alejandro Garcia. My project for the day was Too Fast Too Furious (M11). I managed to link up to the chains on Torchlite on my first attempt but came off whilst trying to search for holds. I think if I had the hold beta I may have been able to flash it. I had another attempt later on but I was too tired to do very much.
Alejandro and Andy went into the tube for the first time and were working Fast and Furious.

STS round 2 and Ravelston Quarry

This weekend was the second round of the STS. It was held at Glasgow climbing centre. I didn't do so well this round, coming 5th. I flashed all but one route, which I didn't get atall. It just so happened to be the only route that didn't have intermediate scoring on it. If it did I would have made the final. I will just have to improve abit for next week at RGU.
On sunday I went to Ravelston Quarry in Edinburgh, with Dan Aberdeen. Ravelston is a small, sandstone, drytooling crag. It is unbolted and un drilled. I think the style of climbing would be very good preperation for winter as all the holds are on natural features. I managed to onsight two things that were probably M6 or M7.
The crag was developed by Oly Leask. Hes written a few blog posts on it which can be found here.
The routes we did were face route B and something to the left of face route A, as shown on his blog.
I will hopefully get down there again to try some more of the routes, and if things go to plan bolting will start soon.

Round 1, Scottish Tooling Series, The Ice Factor

This weekend was the first round of the 2012 Scottish Tooling Series. I have been looking forward to this for a while and so have been trying to get some training in so that I would be in the best position possible to better my second place from last year.
The day started pretty badly as I over slept. I was meant to get up at 5.30 am and have a leisurely breakfast and drive up in time for registration at 8.30. Instead I got up at 7, made a quick coffee and left. I forgot where I was going on my way out of Edinburgh and was half way to the fourth road bridge before I remembered that I needed to go west, not east, so that wasted a bit of time. I knew there was no chance of me getting there in time for registration so I phoned ahead. I managed to arrive in Kinlochleven at about 9.20, just while the introductory talk was going on.
I was to climb with Pete Holder. I first met Pete at the Northern Tooling Series, which he won and I came second in. Pete has been getting a lot of practice in down at The Works in the lake district so I was interested to see how he did. We got under way climb and despite a bit of a shaky start things seemed to go well. I managed to flash 13 of the 15 problems and got 2 on my second attempt. I fell off problem 3 just because it was very hard. I also slipped off the start of problem 9, just because I wasn't paying attention. This gave me 144/150 points, and I qualified for the finals in second place. I was behind Steve Johnstone, who got 150/150. Pete came in 3rd with 141/150.
The finals were to take place on the hanger wall, which was set to a reasonably steep position today. It started with a short traverse then straight up to the top. There were 5 men in the final; Steve, Pete, Cass, Scott and me. I was the fourth person out, as it is done in reverse qualification order, with 5th place coming out first. I figured Pete, Scott and Cass were all strong enough to complete the route, and hearing the crowd cheering made me think that they quite possibly had. I bouldered around whilst in isolation, trying to do as many dyno's as I could, as I'm not really very good at them.
It was my turn and as I came out of isolation I could look at the route and see which was the highest swinging quick draw, as this give me an idea of how high Pete got on his attempt, which was before mine.
I started off pretty steadily and made light work of the traverse. I got to the 5th clip quite easily but the 6th I found a bit more difficult, as my feet slipped whilst clipping and I nearly came off. I managed to get back on and clip then move up again. I got to the 8th clip, which was just before a massive move up. I was getting pretty tired now so I tried to rest as best I could. My gloves were starting to slip on my axes but I went for the move anyway. I didn't reach the hold and I couldn't control the fall back onto my lower axe and came off.
Stevie was up next and he cruised up to were I came off, although by a very different sequence. Stevie managed to make the move I didn't, although he didn't make it look easy, luckily. He topped the route and was crowned winner. I came second, thanks to getting a couple of clips higher than Pete, who came 3rd.

My high point

 There will hopefully be some videos to follow.
The full results are here.
UKC have done a write up of the event here.

Comp season begins

Friday saw the first round of the Alien Rock winter boulder series. I went along with a few members of the EUMC. This was my first, of many, competitions this season so I wasn't expecting anything particularly spectacular.
There were 30 problems in total, with 20 being in each category. I entered the male hard category so had to climb problems 11 to 30. I started well flashing everything until problem 16, which my foot slipped off just before the final hold. Problem 21, which was an odd sort of mantle/bridging route, proved quite difficult, although I got it in the end. I was especially pleased with my flash of problem 23, which I saw a lot of very strong climbers fall off. I finished with 230 points out of 300 which put me in 12th. With the number of strong climbers, and the fact that I don't really see myself as a boulderer, I am pleased with this result, although I do hope to improve.
On Saturday I headed to my usual weekend venue of Newtyle Quarry. I could probably have got some proper winter climbing in but I was psyched to get on DTS Spirit. DTS Spirit was put up my Jeff Mercier last year and was given the grade of M12, making it the hardest thing in the cave at the time. I wasn't too sure on the start so I started up Torchlite and made a big move to the first hook. All the moves on DTS are very large, there are 9 moves and 9 bolts. On my third attempt of the day I managed to link up to the 4th bolt then do all the moves up to the 7th bolt. To get to the 8th is a very big move, which I wasn't able to do. After talking to Greg Boswell this evening I now know where the route starts and where it joins Fast and Furious. I felt utterly shut down on this but I now have things to work on and something new to train for.
As one of my nomics currently has a broken handle I had to team my working nomic up with another axe. I started off by borrowing one of Scotts Grivel Force alloys. I used to really like these but today, compared to my nomic, they didn't feel that great. This is probably partly down to me being so used to my nomics, and that Scotts axes were a bit blunt. I then had a shot with Sandys old Fusion, they orange ones. These felt quite good really and the lower handle being set back so far made them very easy to swap hands on. Hopefully my nomics will be repaired soon.