Injuries and New Year Goals...

Hi everyone!

Well I’ve managed to do a tendon!

I’ve had a pain in my wrist for a while (it was a niggling pain, for about a second after I’d pulled on any hold), but it stopped after Christmas after a bit of rest, but it came back recently. I saw the physio and it turns out I’ve managed to tweak a tendon slightly in my wrist. Two weeks rest it is!!

Turns out I actually do very little else other than climbing, so for the last 12 days 9hours (yes I am counting…) I’ve really been doing very little. I’ve been doing a lot of core and still been turning up to squad, but it’s quite dull really…

I haven’t posted any goals so far this year, so here goes:

-Climb 8a outdoors before April (Raindogs or Cider Soak hopefully)

-Onsight 8a indoors

-Make the semis at Edinburg EYC  sort of... not semis but 11th would have been...

-Go to the Worlds in Singapore Nope!

-Don’t get injured (again… ;))

To be honest I feel most of these may not happen but I really am trying my best!!

Happy Climbing!

Alex

p.s. sorry for the short post, it's late!!

Easy as that...

Hi Everyone,

It’s been an interesting week! TV appearances, articles, leading ladder and a nice day at Bonehill…

Last week I did the leading ladder at DartRock, and after onsighting all but the 8a in the last round there, I was keen to do better this time. The routes all looked crimpy, balancey and technical, my kind of thing! All the routes up to 7b were absolutely fine, although the 6a was solid for the grade!! The 7c looked to have one long move about halfway, and looking at the bolt spaces at the ground I knew that my feet would have to come off, so set off a bit apprehensive. When I got to the move I just committed straight away, stuck the move and got to the top. I’d matched last round, which would have been good enough. Looking at the 8a, it really didn’t look that bad, some rubbish holds at the top looking like the only problem. While I got 1 piece of beta wrong about halfway, I reversed a few moves and got it relatively easily, then on to the top! Technically my first 8a onsight, although I’m not going to count it because it felt a little bit easy for the grade, a great route though. My first 200 in the leading ladder, lets hope there’s a few more like this!

I recently appeared on Spotlight, and I don’t think I did that badly!! We got a call from the BBC on Thursday, and I missed the last 2 lessons of school to go for an interview at The Barn. We were expecting a 15 minute thing where he asked us a few questions, but instead we ended up filming for 2 and a half hours! It ended up coming together quite well, and I was quite pleased really!

Yesterday I had a nice little day up at Bonehill. I did Slopey Traverse and Rippled wall, both great problems which I’ve done before. I was bouldering with a few people and was told about some micro routes that were worth soloing, and thought that I’d take the opportunity of a few pads and spotters to give them a go. I did the E1 arête without a problem, so decided to give the E2 a go! It was defiantly good moves, but the top out was something I wouldn’t have done if it was on the ground, never mind 8m up! It was a horrible rounded thing with not a crystal to speak of, so I made the decision to traverse off, but the lower moves were hard and it was really scary, defiantly more so than the E1, so I’m taking the grade!!

You Cannot Be Serious V3 6a (E2/3 to solo) To the right of the arête is an obvious large hold. Start on this, go direct above, then move right at the top to finish steeply on big holds. Finish direct - scary and high. Wimps can finish direct into the groove (which is still scary!) or traverse right to step onto adjacent ledge. 

Been a great week!

Happy Climbing,

Alex :)

New Blog and GB Team!

Hi everyone,

This is my first blog post, so it may all go horribly wrong!!

I’ll start off by introducing myself, my name is Alex, I’m 14 and have been climbing for 3 years. At the moment I am on-sighting 7c and redpointing 8a indoors, and haven’t been climbing outdoors much!

 My main interest is comp climbing, and I have recently been selected into the GB youth climbing team in my category. This followed a very successful competition at Sunderland wall, a HUGE wall that just goes on and on. The qualifiers were relatively easy, but pumpy for me, and I topped both, along with 6 others! 

Isolation was interesting to say the least, a blue tarp tent covering a slab and a single fingerboard, and was really quite difficult to warm up on! When the first of our finalists went out I was really psyched, and it sounded like he didn’t top it, but the second and the third went out and by the cheers I could tell they’d topped the route. At least I knew what I needed to do…

The final route was a long undercut infested orange that was relatively juggy until the final headwall, where you had to dyno off 2 tiny crimps, really off balance to a rubbish hold. I stuck the move, but only just, a flag below my foot was the only thing that kept me on, and to the top. Good thing too, as 5 of the 7 of us topped it, meaning a big superfinal!

Our superfinal was the Junior male route, a 8a/+ red horror! In observation I really could have done with some binoculars, as you can’t see the top holds from the ground! Looking at the first move, I was a bit worried I’d drop that because it was quite a big move but in reality it was ok. You then turned a small lip into a slight slab, which was balancey but reasonable. Then the hard bit started, a big move off two rubbish crimps, then a move or two until a big reach from an undercut. I got all this, and then a long move out right to a sloper. I needed to clip but I just flash pumped on my right arm! I looked down at the draw, then up at the hold, and again, before dynoing for the next undercut over the top, hoping there’d be something there, there wasn’t, and I fell. I was annoyed about flash pumping, but when I came down and someone told me I was winning so far, I was so happy! There were only two left to come and that meant I was guaranteed a podium! The next climber out put in a good effort but came off just a few moves below, but the final climber, an Irish team member, clipped the draw and stuck the move, and beat me by just 2 holds. Frustrating, but I still had second, my first national podium!

It was on the Monday that I was selected to the 2012 GB youth team, PSYCHED!!!

Happy Climbing,

Alex :)