Saturday 7th March,
the big day has arrived, we were up with the sparrows, organised and at
The Glasgow Climbing Centre just after 9am, this gave me plenty of time to get
in a good warm up. My younger brother Scott helped me with this. With the
centre not opening till 10am we had the place to ourselves.
 |
| Scott putting me through my paces. |
 |
| Warming up on the wall. |
 |
| Can't help trying difficult problems. |
Time quickly flew
in and my dad taped up my fingers, this is the first time I have climbed with my
fingers taped and found it quite unusual to start with, I was really glad at
the end of the day as my fingers are fine.
 |
| Taping up. |
I was just about to climb when the
Urban Uprising Team arrived, from Edinburgh; they kindly presented me with a
cool vest with my name on it and the date of the challenge. I put it straight
on and started my challenge of 100 climbs.
 |
| New Vest and Tape. |
The plan for the day was to climb for 40 min in every hour and have an
extended lunch break. I was really quite pleased when I was at 25 climbs just
after 2 hours this meant I was on track as I expected to slow down as the day
went on.
 |
| Chris taking over belaying. |
I had a good rest and some
energy food, then I was back on aiming to try and do as many
climbs before
lunch. Over the next hour I managed to get up to 40. I then went for my lunch a
tasty haggis lasagne from the Balcony Café.
After lunch I got my fingers re-taped and was straight back on and
busted out some routes.
 |
| Getting into it now. |
I kept trying to vary the routes making sure they were
all graded 6A and over, this was at times difficult during the day as the
centre was open and got quite busy at times with climbers and groups being
taught.
.jpg) |
| Varying the routes. |
 |
| Varying the routes. |
I had a lot of support from
family and friends who had turned up to cheer me on; this really helped me push
on as they were all so encouraging and supportive. I also had quite a team of volunteer
belayers; Dad, Mum, Chris, Jamie, Blez and Ross.
 |
| My support team. |
Around 3pm I was a little tired and I knew I still had a lot of routes to
complete, I then went on to trying to
complete 5 or 10 routes at a time, Slowly but surely I was ticking off the
climbs. I was delighted when I got to 90
climbs and realised I had pushed on and at 4pm I only had 10 left to do.
 |
| Still fun coming down :) |
|
I had a good 45 minute break, refueled and energised I decided to
finish in style, I went on the big brown feature wall and crushed my last 10
climbs. The very final climb, there was
a great atmosphere as everyone in the GCC had stopped to watch me and encourage
me on.
 |
| My audience. |
 |
| Pep talk for final route. |
I hadn’t taken one fall but was worried I would on my final route;
however I managed to the top and was lowered to an amazing applause.
 |
| 100...... |
It was a
wonderful day and I later on found out I was named as Youth Ambassador for Urban Uprising.
The next day my mum was back at GCC for women’s day, I wanted to go but
my mum said I needed a rest day. My arms
and hands are fine and I have a good day just out playing with Scott and my
friend Lucie. I have been on the wall in
my room though….I can’t help it :)
Thanks again for all the support and donations it really does mean a lot,
with all your help I have raised an amazing £1100 for the charity.
 |
| My Team....Thanks Guys :) |
Check in soon Caitlin “Tank” Connor
