Day 2 in Fontainbleu

Climbing in Font with Neil Gresham and his group for the whole week. I took 5 days off climbing after last weekend because Neil McGeachy told me to and I now feel much better. We arrived on Saturday night after getting stuck in traffic around Paris. On Sunday when we woke up it was raining so we only managed about three hours climbing but it was fantastic. I woke up this morning and it was sunny and I was so excited. I ate lots of pain au chocolate and we headed for the boulders!! At first the boulders were a little wet and so we looked around the forest and checked them out while they were drying. The french people get very angry if you climb on them while they are wet because it wears away the sandstone. When we started to boulder it was amazing, it is so different to bouldering inside, I think I prefer bouldering outside. The boulders are really technical and have REALLY small foot holds so you have to be balanced when you are on them. Before you get onto a boulder you have to arrange your crash mat into the right place depending on the angle of the problem, clean your crash mat with your towel, clean your shoes with the towel or your feet will slip off REALLY easily. Then you're off!!!!!
My climbing buddy, Becky, who is a very good adult climber, is really nice and we give each other pointers on each problem and advice on how to do it! Sean, the trainee coach, was good to work with and really helped me on the harder problems in Font. By 5pm my feet were killing me and I had to go back to the Gite (where we were staying).
I was exhausted by the time we were finished, after 5 hours training, 12pm to 5pm, I was ready to jump in the shower. Hopefully tonight dinner will be good!!! :D

YCS Round 2 Glasgow

Over the past week I have been suffering from a bug that makes me sick and feel faint and so I have not been feeling well. I have still tried to train but had nothing interesting to blog about apart from nearly throwing up on my mums head from the grey 7a+ that I was attempting (badly). I spent more time in Ratho toilets than on the wall!!
This was all on the lead up to the second round of the YCS held in Glasgow Climbing Centre on Saturday the 20th. I had given up hoping I would feel okay and was only holding out for making it through the day. I had to climb in order to get points if I had a chance of getting into the final on the 12th of June, or into the Scottish Final.
Although I felt weak and shaky I thought the first climb and boulder were VERY easy. The second route was harder. When Robbie demoed it he even looked like he was struggling (hahahahahaha). I got 99/100 points so I was pleased(ONE HOLD AWAY FROM THE TOP!!!) I just couldn’t hold the last hold after I did a major dyno for it . My sister, Olivia, was first up for the second boulder and totally flashed it! She did really well! The last move was hard because you had to hold onto an alien head hold ( I held onto its eyeballs) I got it on my second go!
The third boulder was da bomb! Bridging, high feet and swinging basically sums it up! I also got that one on my second go nearly fainting in between!!!
Finally, the last route was AWESOME!!!!!!!!! Full of slopers, dynamic moves and you had to be in balance all the time. I felt really bad by this time and was seriously shaky but decided to give it a go and get as many points as possible. I drank some lucozade sport and hoped it would stay in my tummy for the climb. I found the middle of the route where the the tricky bit was, hard, but kept looking for features and moving my weight over my feet. I got to the second last hold which had nothing on it to hold and so came off!! Only two others got to the same position, that was Megan and Rachel who had a super climb off and Megan won. I came third, one point behind them. I was so pleased to see the end of the day. Poor Kirsten and Alasdair felt the same as me.

Mentoring Session in Glasgow

Aberdeen Saturday and Glasgow on Sunday, I am missing Ratho. I was in Jonny’s group this week with Lewis and Claudia. We did some top ropes and leading mainly 6b’s and one 6c. I really enjoyed the black on the arête and managed to get to about 5 holds from the top. We then did some bouldering and some hanging off the holds to check our arm strength. I enjoyed the session it went really quickly. I then had to get home quickly because I had a Laser quest party to go to.

Scottish Youth Bouldering Competition

On Friday we drove up to Aberdeen, had pizza and then went to bed to be ready for the competition in the morning. The comp was held at Transition Extreme in Aberdeen, it has a brilliant skateboarding place and a basketball court.
In the morning we had to do 10 boulder problems, we had lots of time so Olivia and I went out for a run for 10 minutes to warm up. Unfortunately Olivia was allergic to the grass and ended up wheezy!! So we sat out and watched for a while. I decided to start with the pink and then no.10 grey and then worked my way round them missing out on the queues. I was really pleased to top all of the boulders and get through to the semi finals. Five of us were in the semis because two climbers were in fourth place. We were all put in isolation and had to wait our turn. I was last to go and by then my legs were shaking. The green and black problem had a very difficult start unless you had very long arms. It didn’t go well for me, I couldn’t get past the start and only gained 44 points. When I came off I bashed my shoulder on a hold and had to have an ice pack put on it. I then had to wait for the second boulder that also looked difficult. I tried my very hardest and managed 54 points. Unfortunately it was not good enough to get through to the final, only two got through. I came in third place and was awarded a medal.
I still love to boulder.

Sesh with Neil McGeek

Last Thursday I had a coaching session with Neil McGeeky. Neil started by talking to me in the office about what we were going to do that night, To start we did a few falls on top-ropes because Neil knows I don’t like falling, we then moved on to some lead climbs. To help overcome my fear I had to jump when Neil shouted “GO” without looking down or thinking about it. By the end of the session I began to quite enjoy falling. Neil has given me a programme to do over the next four weeks, I can’t wait to start it. I really like training with Neil, he makes me want to try hard.

BBBBBBbbbUUUuuuOOOOOooSSSHHHhh!!

BBBbbbbUUUUoooosshhshhh
Bouldering about on Tuesday, I ran into Robbie and Nat. I was trying the white on the barrel boulder and had a big move that I was finding it hard to commit to because it was quite high. Robbie very quickly took me onto a lower bit to practice my dyno technique. When he was showing me he made lots of very enthusiastic noises to go along with the move. Olivia, Nat and I were laughing lots at Robbie’s noises. BBBBBBBUUUOOOooSSSSSSHHHHH!!!!!!