After my performances last
year, and with making 2 European finals, I was this year selected for the World
Youth Championships in Victoria, Canada along with a small group of the GB
team; Molly, Pete, Buster, Jim and William. The flight was long, dull and
filled with films, with the most exciting event being the finding of an
unattended in-flight cookie box around 5 hours in. Canada
After short hop from Vancouver to Victoria UK
The Team!
Friday rolled around, and
it was time for the first qualifiers. I was one of the last to climb in the
biggest category of the event, so waited for hours under the giant wall,
watching the competition unfold. I met a fair few new people on that day and
the opening ceremony the previous night, and it was great to talk to some of
them during the day. It was late before I started my climb, but I knew what I
was doing, knew I was fit and knew I was ready. In the first part of the climb
I felt sketchy and perhaps a bit nervous, but when I got to the rest I told
myself to relax, enjoy it and climb my best, and I did. I fought as high as I
could, and made it beyond any expectations I had, falling pumped within 2 clips
of the top. You can do no more than fall off fighting, and that’s exactly what
I did! I ended up 13th on that
route, which put me in with a very good chance of making the semis, so I could
relax some more and focus on my next route, and try to do as well as I could.
Qualifier 1 (Photo By Nick Pope!)
Like the first, my second
qualifier began vertical and steepened out into a roof towards the top, and
looked like my perfect style! I was on much earlier today, and this meant I
could warm up as soon as I got to the wall, which helped to calm my nerves.
Normally on routes in competitions they feel easier than they looked, that is
the holds are bigger than they look from the ground, and the moves not as long,
but on this route this was not the case! It was insecure and sketchy but I made
my way up to the vertical wall to a rest, where I composed myself for the
harder moves above. I moved off and up, and got to a long rockover around the
arête. It was one of the harder moves on the route, and required a fair amount
of commitment. I rocked to it, moving off the intermediate, but only got to the
bottom of the hold. I clawed at wall trying to move the last inch but despite
coming so close, I peeled off backwards into the air. I’m normally good at
rockovers, so to fall off here was frustrating! It was enough though, and I
qualified for the semi final in 17th.
Qualifier 2 (Photo By Nick Pope!)
The rest day was relaxing
and gave me time to reflect on my performance, but before I knew it, it was
back to the wall and into isolation. During observation the route looked just
my style, techy and vert into more steep, crimp climbing. It looked perfect,
and I was psyched to get on it! My time rolled around, and I was ready. From
the start I felt good, and pretty solid on the first section. I got past the
vertical and was resting ready to go for a big tufa that marked the beginning
of the steeper section. I went for the move ready to use a small foothold as an
intermediate, but it was terrible! I returned to the hold, ready to make the
move again but had to move my hand around the rope, or it would have been in my
way to do the move. I bumped it off, went around the rope, but when coming back
down I hit the hold again wrong. I popped off it, over balanced and fell. I was
devastated; to fall off with such a stupid mistake was completely frustrating.
I ended up 24th, which with my qualifying results being much better
I know there is lots of room for improvement, so bring on next year!
The Semis (Photos By Nick Pope!)
From Canada , after I got over my horrendous jetlag,
it was to Norway
My first route was no soft
touch. The vertical wall was littered with slopers that I knew were going to
get my pumped. I sat in the chair, but was beginning to cool down as soon as I
got off the warm-up wall. By the time it was my turn to climb, I felt fine, but
as soon as I got onto the cold holds of the wall my fingers got cold I started
to get pumped. I sketched my way over an awkward move off a sloper and rested
on a volume, but just couldn’t shake off the pump. I had to press on, and hope
it got no worse. I dug deep, and pulled over a lip before a move to and
undercut defeated me. I came off pumped and frustrated with a final place of 12th
on the route. Not bad, but not good enough for a place in the final yet. I had
to do better, and I knew warming up effectively and staying warm would be
key.
I was dejected, but tried
to stay positive. The route looked hard, and I was particularly worried about a
section in the middle. I started and heel hooked my way up the arête to what
looked like a hit or miss slap to a sloper, and there seemed to be more miss
than hit. I got onto the hold below, looked up and reversed the moves. A high
heel to hand, a rockover and a bit of luck later and I was past it, thank god for
heels! I was pumped, but managed to fight my way to the next hard move, where I
managed a crucial match on a big sloper before pumping out and peeling off. Now
it was time to wait. For my efforts I gained a joint 4th place on
that route, and had to wait the agonising hours to see if I could sneak in. The
end draw closer and I was dropping places slowly. 6th… 7th…
8th… 9th… Then came 10th, the one place no-one
wants to be with the end still not close. There were 5 to climb, then 2, then
none. I had made it to the final of my first European this year, along with the
rest of the GB junior team!
The 2nd Qualifier
The next day, finals day
and I was set to go. I felt strong, and fit and ready. The route during
observation looked desperate, with a hard double dyno move at half height. I
read with a number of people, but knew the sequence was hard to read, and
ensured I had multiple options for every move. I sat in the chair, put my shoes
on, and then my favourite song came on in the arena. Perfect. I walked out,
stood under the wall and read the climb. Time to go!
I had a huge scare at the
second clip, where I had missed that one of the volumes was in fact a giant jug
and went too statically, and almost didn’t reach it. Fortunately I held on, and
fought my way through the lower section of the climb. I rested on a heel hook
over a small lip and made my way, with some fighting, to the crimps before the
dyno. It looked even bigger from here! I rested for what felt like an age on
the crimps, and knew I would have to go for it. I got my feet up, and went!
Looking back, it seemed like I was trying to do the move statically, or at
least keep a hand on. I touched the hold, but couldn’t bring my other hand over
to match it, and fell.
Looking back, maybe I
should have rested longer on the holds, and gone for it with full commitment.
But, I must say, the dyno was inappropriate for our age category. 4 fell at the
same spot, and count back had to be used to separate us. One climber made the
jump, and won the competition. This seems to be a new thing in competition lead
climbing, dynos on the route. There were 2 in Norway
I finished 5th
in Norway Laval
Massive thank you to Paul
Allen Wealth Management for their support, and bring on next year!
Happy climbing!
Alex J
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