Woohoo... came third!

Well that's me back from the first round of the YCS 2015, it was my first time in youth C and i managed to come in third place.
My younger brother Scott who also moved up this year and is now in youth D came third in his category.
My Mum and Dad are over the moon. — feeling amazing.

Well done to everyone who competed today.

I will write up something more when I've had something to eat (I'm starving!).

YCS 2015

Hey everybody, the YCS (Youth Climbing Series) starts tomorrow with the first round being held in The Glasgow Climbing Centre​.
I am really looking forward to it as I will be lead climbing this year as i am now in group C.
It will also be good to catch up with climbers from EICA Ratho​.
The competition will start at 10am and finish around 6pm.
Feel free to pop in and cheer me on if your in the area.
P.S. The Balcony cafe does some great food.
#climbing
#bouldering

TCA comp! :)

Hi everyone,
      i'm just back from the comp held at TCA, it was really good fun!
      I managed to come in at 3rd place, not bad for having a sore knee.
      The first round was the flash format (the flash format is when you have one shot to try and flash the problem. Flashing a problem is when you get the problem first time). I qualified through in 3rd place and then moved on into the semi-finals.
       In the semi-finals it was the bubble format (the bubble format is when your age catagory joins another catagory and goes round the problems together. My age catagory teamed up with the veterans. It was quite confusing at first but in the end i got it) and i qualified in 3rd place again. After that it was time for lunch before the finals...
       After lunch everyone started to warm up again before the finals started.
       when everyone was warmed up we all headed to the pit (the pit is a space in the left side of the center  where you can sit and watch climbers while you have a drink of water, it is really handy. Oh, and if you ever go there it has to be water you drink or else you get into trouble because they say that if you you have juice and you spill it it will make all the mats sticky, it is true though) for isolation.
        Isolation is what people call it when you sit and wait for your turn to climb. You normally can't see the others when you are in isolation, that's what makes is more exciting (and scary) though.
        So back to the comp, we then had 6 minutes to read our routes. Once we had read the route the person who qualified in 3rd place went out first (that was me). On the first problem i got to the hold just above the bonus hold. Then when it was my turn again i got to the bonus. On the 3rd problem i got to the bonus again.
       A little time later they counted up the scores and i came 3rd. I won a 10 pound gift voucher for Ellis Brigam. I now have two vouchers,  will have to go online and treat myself.

Trip to Benny Beg

Hi everyone, hope your all having fun over the October break.

I've been doing a lot of climbing as I'm hoping to go down to Sheffield for the Lead climbing championships at the end of November.

On Wednesday we headed over to Bennybeg. We arrived at around eleven o'clock and it was quiet sunny, we were the only climbers there for the majority of the day. We started off doing our warm-up, my wee brother Scott took the warm-up, after that we done some stretches and I tied in to do the first route.

Stretching!!!

Reading the route.

This was the first time I have sport climbed outside and my dad has spent ages going over everything I needed to know and making sure I practised at home. I was quiet nervous but really excited at the same time.

Scott, making sure I'm OK.

I went up Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men first this was a low grade (3) but I clipped my own runners on the way up and finished off at the anchor point before my lower off. I'm so glad that I practised how to tie in to the anchor point.

Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men

Next came Route 2 a (4+) followed by Bennydorm a (5) and finally Benny and the Banshees a (4), we then spent some time doing some low level traversing and Scott done a lead on Route one (3+), well done to Scott.

Ready for the Lower off - Bennydorm.

Climbing and placing my own runners gave me so much confidence as I was having difficulty climbing above the clips at the GCC and kept going for clips as soon as I could reach them.

Scott at the top of Bill and Benny the Flower Pot Men.

First sport climb done....

Just about to reach the lower off on my first sport climb.

Happy after a days at the crag :)

Many thanks to mum and dad and all my coaches (especially Scott :) ).

Trying to make a video.

This is my first try at making a video with Scott, we hope you enjoy it :)

WCS 2014 (Womens Climbing Symposium)

Hi everyone,
            I had a ball yesterday at the Women's Climbing Symposium! It was a great experience and well worth the money.

www.womensclimbingsymposium.com

Welcome and introduction-Photo by WCS

            In the morning I went to The Demon Slayers talk and it was all about the demon inside you. The demon was what you feared most. There was lots of people who feared lead falls. We listened to some people (including Mina) who shared their fear with us.

  The Demon Slayers-Photo by WCS

After that we all had a break and then went to Psyche Therapy and that was all about the positives and the negatives of the sport.

Some positives and negatives:

POSITIVES:                                                                       NEGATIVES:

it's an adventure                                                                   could get hurt
heart racing                                                                          it's scary
adrenaline rush                                                                     not worth the risk

I Like The Way You Move was our final talk. It was a really nice lady who was telling us about how your posture can change your climbing ability so much more! I found that really interesting. We also watched a video of her 2 year old daughter climbing. I don't know why but she said to try climbing barefooted?  We all had to try some belly dancing (that was a real laugh). Once the talk was over, me, Carla and Rhiannon done a traverse with no shoes on! Some of the small ones hurt my foot but i tried to stick to the big slopy ones.

            For lunch me, Carla, Rhiannon and Lucy all went to Tesco but then there was a Greggs next door so we went in there instead. We went to the park and finished of our Greggs.

In the afternoon I had picked to do the two coached sessions, the first was Brain Training and the second was Confidence on the Wall.

Sophie, Lucy, Me (the little one), Rhianon, Shauna, Eilidh, Amy, Chiara

In Brain Training we were talking about how you think can change the way you climb mentally. We done some of the boulders that had just been set and before we tried them we had to visualise ourself or someone else climbing and getting to the top in one go! I found that it really helped me and it was a really good technique!

             After that we had a small break and then I moved on to Confidence On The Wall. That was probably my favourite avtivity! We were doing lots of boulders on the comp wall and we also done some dynos. There was this one route that nobody got in there first attempt (I was really lucky and managed to get it done on my second attempt).

This is a photo mum took of me and Shauna at TCA on Thursday night. Mum got it printed onto a block and Shauna signed it for me at the end of the day.

          

SYCC 2014

Hi everyone, Ive been training hard hard over the Summer, I got a place in the TCA bouldering squad even though I'm only 11, thanks Alan Cassidy for having faith in me :), I also went to Northumberland with Mum, Dad and Scott where we did a bit of camping and a bit of outdoor climbing at Corby's Crag, I was learning how to place my own protection, that's scary...

Corby's Crag

Scott

Trad rack

Practicing placing my own protection.

 We also managed to squeeze in a training session at Ratho and a bouldering comp at TCA.

 

SYCC training day with Robbie and Buzz.

The rules for the bouldering comp.

 I will still be at the GCC every week as well and the the try outs are on again tomorrow. hopefully I will make the team again.


I competed in the SYCC (Scottish Youth Climbing Competition) yesterday, Scott competed as well, and I came in third in the climbing comp and first in the speed comp, well done me, I was so excited :)

 

Having fun before the comp starts.

Climbing with Carla and Rhiannon to warm up.

 

Scott on his first route.

Dad caught me with a candid shot.

Heading up the senior comp wall.

Never beat my personal best, still sitting at 42 seconds but I will beat it.

Moving up my second qualifier.

On the final route, this was hard.

Never got much father.

First place in the Speed Climbing.

Third place in the climbing comp.

Thanks to everyone who for their good wishes, I move up a category in January and I need to put in even more hours, mum and dad will be well sick of me by Christmas.