World Youth Ice Climbing Championship Lichtenstein 6th/7th Jan 2018

During November and December I competed in the British DryTooling Series, I won the series overall and got a place on the GB Ice Climbing Team. This meant that I was eligible to attend my first International Competition.

Drytooling Round 1

Before Christmas I met with Rachael Miller from the BBC at the Ice Wall in Snow Factor Braehead. There she filmed me doing some ice climbing and an Interview about the upcoming Youth World Ice Championships in Liechtenstein.  Scott Stevenson from Snow Factor was there with my dad helping out and making sure we got everything we needed.tmas

Snow Factor Ice Wall

the link is here in case you never seen it.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-42424397/ice-climber-aims-for-the-sky

On Thursday 4th of January me and my dad flew out to Munich. We arrived at the airport at about twelve-ish and boarded the plane a few hours later. We had to get the flight to Stanstead then from there straight to Munich. we didn't arrive at the hotel till later on the Friday night so we had some food then went straight to bed. the next morning we had to get up early and have breakfast. we had hired a car the night before so we then packed our bags and drove to Liechtenstein. it took around three and half hours and on the way we passed through Austria and Switzerland. one we were in Liechtenstein we drove up one of the mountains into Malbun. The views were absolutely stunning and before we knew it we were outside the hotel. when we got there all you could see were skiers.Iit was so busy and really interesting to watch people do it(I've never skied), before even going into the hotel we seen the wall that I would be competing on it was literally a stone's throw away from the hotel door. 

 

Malbun Ice Tower

It was a really high ice tower 20meters tall with a dry tooling wall with an overhang recently added to the side. one part of the ice wall was ice up to almost the top then it turned into a dry tooling route and the opposite side was a vertical dry tooling route. it looked incredible and it was really impressive. They even had ice barrells hanging from the overhang but since it was slightly warm the ice had started to melt so later that night they ended up replacing them with wooden logs. After looking at the wall we headed inside to register and sign in to the hotel. 

The flags of the 10 Nations that competed.

Once we had registered and met everyone we put our bags in the hotel room and went downstairs into the registration room and listened to the briefing and said hi to all the other teams. Me and my dad were the only two people there representing Great Britain, while there was other teams like Russia, France, Swiss and USA with much larger teams. For dinner there was a buffet set up and we were to sit at certain tables. each table had a team flag on it so me and my dad had dinner at the smallest table whilst the other countries had massive long buffet tables all set up. After everyone had eaten we had an opening ceremony. Everyone from each team had to walk down this little icy road with fire lining the sides holding a big flaming torch and one of the kids who lived there walked with you holding up a sign that said what team you were from. I had the good luck to be walking with Sina a 7 year old girl who had seen the BBC video before I got there so knew who I was, she was really cute and I learned that she was having her birthday the following week ( I hope she got the card I sent). The first team to walk down was France a big team with lots of competitors and coaches, it was an amazing atmosphere there were people clapping cheering and they were playing really load music. After France they called Great Britain so me and Sina and her mum Nikki started to walk down, it was exciting to walk down with all the fire and the cheering. 

 

Walking down with all the fire.

Me Sina and her mum Nikki

 

Straight after the opening ceremony there was a free show "Fire and Ice", it was really cool to watch and funny as well. Since everyone was up early the next morning for the competition we all went straight to bed after it.

Waking up the next morning I was really tired because we had to get up and have breakfast for before eight. we sat and ate breakfast in the same place that we had ate dinner the following night. We had our first route being all ice and our second route the one with most ice but also some dry tooling. We were given an order in which to climb and I was near the end giving me plenty of time to watch everyone and when it was my time to go I was warm and ready to climb. I managed to top my first route and we quickly moved on to the second route. I was near the middle in the order this time . 

I got to the second last hold but then got pulled off the wall for time . 

The head judge came running over as soon as I was down and was saying how it wasn't time for me but someone on the other wall so I waited till the rest of my category had gone then got to go again. I managed to top it putting me in joint first with a few of the Russian girls. My whole category was Russian except from one French girl. A few of the Russians could speak a little English so I tried talking them for a bit. We then went and got lunch which was a buffet again before going back to the hotel for a nap. speed qualifiers and finals got put into the one thing because of the temperature and how soft the ice was so I had a four hour break before having a snack and heading back down to the climbing wall which was only 30 metres from the hotel that all the competitors were staying in. 

Everyone got one practice run on a wall that we weren't doing our speed run on then we got split into girls and boys. The youngest category under 16 which was mine went first. we all got three timed runs and the best time out of them all gave us our final position. At the top of the wall there is a metal thing that flaps over the buzzer but me and one other girl had a miss hit that didn't register so we had to do an extra run. I ended up coming seventh for speed which I was quite happy about. We stayed and watched the older people do their speed route and then went for dinner, then straight to sleep again. 

On the Sunday morning it was finals and another early rise. we were up and ready for about half seven and then got breakfast before putting all of my gear in isolation. In isolation they had a wooden frame with some climbing holds on it to help warm up, me and most other people just done jogging on the spot and used our bands. I was near the end so I had plenty of time so I also ready. I think I was in isolation for almost two hours, but halfway through we got to go out and view our route, mine was on the vertical dry tooling wall and then went round the corner onto the other side of the wall finishing on the ice. 

Route Preview

When it was my time to go out the lady took my bag of stuff and handed it to my dad whilst I got tied in and ready to climb my route. 

Tied in ready to climb the final route.

I got up past the first few clips before getting to an awkward hold which I ended up pinging off but a few girls had done the same and some didn't get up to there so we waited on the result and when they came I was quite happy. I had came joint fifth with a couple of the Russian girls. We stayed and watched the prize giving the top three made podium and the winner had their national anthem played while they stood there holding their countries flag. All the teams got a big balloon and everyone from the team wrote their names on it. The little girl Sina who had walked with me at the opening ceremony asked if she could go up and let go of the balloon with me so we wrote our names and GB on the balloon.  A few people from each team went up and let go off the balloons, it was a really nice way to end the competition.  

 Me and my dad says thanks and well done to everyone before packing our bags and heading, we done the same drive back to the hotel we had booked in Munich as the one we had done to get there. once again it was so pretty and nice to drive through the mountains just looking at all the views. Once back in Munich we handed our car back and got some food, we went for a McDonalds. We had a look in the shops at the airport and bought a few small things. once back at the hotel we had an early night watched some movies and went to bed. The next morning we got to sleep till nine which is still really early for me but the last few days had been worst so I didn't mind too much. We had breakfast, got the shuttle bus back to the airport and got a direct flight back home to Edinburgh where my mum picked us up and took us home. overall I had a great time. It was a really great experience and I would love to do it again.  I was happy to be interviewed when I got home by Murray Spooner from the Rutherglen Reformer and the interview can be seen here on the Daily Record webpage.

 https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/cambuslang-teenager-only-british-representative-11861855

Many thanks go to Snow Factor for sponsoring me as a Young Athlete, TCA, GCC. Rope Race and the coaches for their encouragement, and to individuals Simon Ward, Anna Wells, Kev Shields, Willis Morris and Scott G for helping me with my training.

British Tooling Series final round.

On the Friday night my dad, brother and I travelled in the car to Oban.  We stayed overnight with my cousins, it was nice to  break up the journey and catch up with Danny and his twin girls Danielle and Lillie.   

Next morning we got up early and travelled to Kinlochleven. As soon as we arrived we had a tour around the place, it was my first visit. The place was massive. My favourite part from looking around was the bouldering area.  We went and said Hi to everyone and it was nice to see some friendly faces like Willis (my favourite), Emma, Melissa, and I was surprised to see Karen. I sorted out all my kit and I read the routes with Willis and Melissa. The routes looked challenging but I was excited to give them a shot.   We then went to the Ice wall to look at the routes and I was really psyched to try the routes.

Tying in.

I then tried my first route on the wall, Willis (being brave) went first and managed to complete the route on his 3rd go. Melissa went 2nd and got the route on her first go. I then tried and was really happy that I managed it on my 2nd go. 

Route 1

 

We quickly moved on and tried some of the auto belays on the other side, I managed to get all three but not on my first go. I then tried a longer route and fell off 3/4 of the way up. This was my favourite route however I just found some of the moves too big and reachy for me. 

Route 2 Mellissa belaying.

Almost got the top.....!!!

We then moved on to the bouldering, I really enjoyed the short problems although they were really hard, There was 4, I managed to complete 2 one of which was on my first attempt, the other was on  the 3rd go.

The next boulder I managed half way but my axe kept popping off.  The final boulder was on a complete overhang. I barely managed to get off the ground , however I had good fun trying.

I then had a quick Scooby snack before putting on warm gear and my crampons. Willis and I headed to the ice wall. It was freeeeeeezzzzinngg!! Willis went first on the route, whilst I belayed him. Willis managed to complete this route and so did I.

We swiftly moved round to the second route.  This was my favourite ice route. It start on one wall, you had to climb a few moves before making a  massive bridge move out to the right on to the other wall, before continuing up. We both managed this first go. 

Bridging the gap!

 

Finally we moved on to the last ice route, it felt really long and had big moves. It  was a challenging climb. Then we escaped from the freezer....

I did a few more routes and then it was time for the final. I had qualified in 3rd place. 

Observation of the finals route.

 

When it was my time to come out of isolation I felt excited and nervous. I attempted my route without any fear, I only managed to the 4th clip before one axe popped off and as I fell back onto my other axe, the axe pulled the hold off the wall. I was a little scared as I wasn't expecting it to come off. I watched the rest of the competitors climb the final route, everyone did really well. I came 4th overall which I was really pleased with. 

This result gave me the following for the series;

Round 1  3rd Place

Round 2  2nd Place

Round 3  4th Place

This gave me 2nd place overall in the series.

I'm really pleased with my results as this was my first try at Drytooling and I competed in the adult category  :) Thanks to everyone that supported me, Mum, Dad and Scott, my coaches Alan and Willis, The Glasgow Climbing Centre, Snow Factor Braehead, TCA Glasgow and Urban Uprising.

Have a great New Year, see you all in 2017 xxx

Briish Tooling series so far.

On Saturday 26th November, me and my mum got up and organised today is the 2nd round of the British tooling Series. 

We got in the car and headed down to Keswick in England. The drive was about 2 and a half hours with stopping at the services where we met some climbers Joe and Kev, also heading to Keswick. Once we had got to king Kong climbing wall, we signed up for the comp. After we sorted all the gear out we had a quick look in the shop before others started to arrive. We went and said hello to everyone, and then went for a briefing. At the briefing they told us the rules and how the comp worked. We had to wear leashes, we were allowed to wear rock shoes except from two routes which you had to kick into ply wood with. 

Briefing

 

I started on route one with rock shoes on. I managed to get it first go and quickly changed my boots to ones with points on the front for route two. On route two I could only use holds with carpet behind it and the ply wood for my feet, my feet could also use holds I had used for my axes. I hadn't really tried my boots out, because they were brand new so my first few hits into the ply wood weren't very good but I got the hang of it. I was at the 3rd last hold on route two and suddenly my axe popped of the hold and I fell. I moved on to the second route which needed crampons. it was the same rules but it was slightly at an angle and a lot longer. I got halfway up before falling off. I decided to try the route two again while I still had my crampons on. When I got round I tied in as quickly as possible. I had already wasted time by waiting for routes with long lines so I had to speed my pace up a bit. I managed to get it second go. It felt easier because I had tried the longer one. After that we didn't go round them in order only by how hard they looked. the next one I tried I slipped off and then tried one on the more slabby wall. I flashed it but found all the moves really long and stretched. I tried one with really big moves. I got halfway up to wear the icicle was. The icicle was a bit of wall which hung by itself. I put my axe on the hold on the icicle and the whole thing moved. I almost popped off only to slip on the move afterwards. This was one of my favourite routes because the icicle moved and I had never done a route with anything like that on it. There was a really overhanging climb that looked really hard do my plan was to leave I till last and try the 3 boulder problems. 

One of the qualifing routes

I really like doing bouldering with the axes because I feel a lot more confident on them than routes, although I still get a wee bit nervous before trying a hard boulder. I got to the last hold on the first boulder problem second go and didn't really try it after that. When I got on boulder two I slipped of near the start but got back on and got to a big move going for a chain, I could just reach it but as soon as I stretched to hook the chain my other axe popped off the hold. The same thing happened on my third go but I was running out of time so I went and tried the third boulder. It was really hard. it had a sit start where you had no feet and hung on a chain, you then had to do either a figure of four/nine or lock of before striking into a big log which was attached to another bit of wood. I got my figure of four sorted then messed up and over stretched my shoulder. I didn't want to injure it any more so I went to lockers, sorted my gear and put some heat pads on my shoulder before having another quick look in the shops. 

I was really annoyed because in the end I never got to try the hard overhang one and also one that I hadn't seen with a gherkin shape hold. I looked like some massive moves but I was still pretty disappointed that I never got to try it. we came back from the shop had some lunch, then went to see the results and finalist. I qualified for finals in second place. My mum didn't really want me to climb in the final, but its only one route and it was lead, and since I had been practicing some leading back home with the shmoolz, I really wanted to try it with the axes again. In the end we agreed I would climb the final route. I went got all my stuff put in isolation before heading out to read our route. our route was a slight overhang with some pretty small holds. I had climbed on the holds before so I wasn't too nervous about them. I went out second. once I was out  quickly went over the route tied in then got my axes sorted. They already have two preclips. I made it past the first two preclips then made a further two clips. I was almost at the third one, but unfortunately I wasn't confident enough doing the move. I ended up timing out. although when I came off I was pretty annoyed at myself for not going for the move I was still really happy I got 2nd place and I didn't find leading as scary. All I have to do now is get more confident. :))

 Photos courtesy of Kong Adventure.

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