I am just back from Ratho after having a session with Robbie. I did my usual 30 minute warm up and then we started by doing the tagged problems in the boulder room. I found them all quite hard but managed to get three of them. Robbie gave me thirty seconds to plan my route and then watched me and then when I couldn't do them he would suggest different ways of doing them. We then moved onto the feature on the bottom of the main wall to make up a really hard traverse only using features. Rachel Carr joined in to help make up the traverse. I could do about a quarter of it but we all fell off at the same part because it was so hard! Robbie, Rachel and I brushed all the sloppy features and looked at all the ways to hold them. After trying the traverse I thought we should grade it a V15. We moved onto the boulders and made up a feature problem on the over hang. Robbie said we should try and mantle shelf over it. So instead of just mantle shelfing over it I said we should make up a problem that starts under the over hang and comes over the lip. We made up the problem and tried it, I got over the lip but fell off going for the next hold.
Then I did my cool down session.

Imst Youth Color Climbing festival

On Thursday mum and I left from Edinburgh airport to travel to Imst in Austria for the Climbing Colour Festival. I was ssooooooooooo excited. Mum picked me up early from school and we met up with Angus, William, Nikki and Sophie at the airport. It was a two hour flight to Munich airport and then we hired a car to drive to Austria. Mum and I had our own car and we were going to follow Gordon and Martin because they had sat nav, but Gordon drove too fast and it was dark and raining and so we lost him after 5 minutes. Nikki’s dad Jimmy saw us and so we followed him. It took a long time and we didn’t arrive in Imst until 12.30. I was so tired although I had slept in the car. Our room was great and I could see the climbing wall from the balcony. The next morning we had breakfast at 9 and then went to the alpine rollercoaster. We went on a cable car up the mountain fro about 30 minutes and then came down on a little buggy attached to rails with( when you are on it with my mum) no brakes !!!! It was brilliant. I went on it two more times with Nikki and Sophie, but used my brakes. We then had some pizza and bout some food for the next day. We then went to the climbing wall to have a look and register. The wall was awesome and I was number 15 out of 29 in my group.
The next morning we had breakfast at 7.30 and we were at the wall at 8 to meet Ian Dunn for our warm up. After the warm up, I did my own warm up and then watched the demonstrations at 8.45. The first route was okay but it I was quite nervous. It was very busy with lots of people watching and nobody spoke English in my group. They were from Austria, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Israel, Slovakia, Germany and France. When they called my name they said Steeeyouert Gabrrryelle Great Breetain. But we always went in the same order so I knew when it was my turn. There was an Austrian girl called Helena after me and she always said ‘luck’ to me before I started.
It was difficult to keep warm all day and I had to keep taking my shoes off and on and not do too much bouldering in between because we didn’t finish until 6. I topped all of the 6 routes on the first day but so did everyone else apart from one!! William, Angus and Nikki did well, they had really really hard climbs. Sophie didn’t feel she had done her best because she was shaking with nerves.
We went for pasta and ice cream and went to bed. I knew the routes were going to be a lot harder the next day.
We did our warm up and stretches and then watched the first two demos. My first rute was a purple, which looked a bit tricky but okay. I managed to get one hold from the top but whacked my chin and came off. It was okay after a couple of minutes and so I concentrated on the next one which was a a very technical blue. Lots of the climbers were coming off on this one. I managed to get about three quarters of the way up and then came off. My second last climb was very weird. It was more like a traversing boulder and then up. I got to the third last hold. And the final route was a green route which again was quite technical. I climbed this quite well and came off 2 holds from the top. I don’t think I climbed the absolute best I could have climbed, I was nervous and so my muscles were tense, but I really enjoyed it and learned loads. At the end I was 19th, the others were in the older category and Nikki was 11th, Angus was 9th, William was 23rd ( I think) and Sophie was 34th, I think we did well for Scotland. There was a prize giving and then we drove back to Munich airport. We arrived home at 12 which was 1am in Austria so I was exhausted. I was allowed to take the next day off school and so I have been doing nothing all day. I absolutely loved my trip to Imst and made really good friends with Nikki. I hope I see her soon she is an amazing climber.

Scottish Finals

I was really pleased to come in the top 5 and make it into the Scottish finals and although I really liked going to Aviemore, to Extreme Dream, I was pleased it was being held in Ratho because it meant I didn’t have far to travel. We had three routes and three boulders to do. The first route and the first two boulders were really easy, the second route which was the yellow route was also okay but unfortunately there were two routes very close together and at the top an older climber came off his route and skiffed my back, I got a very big fright and fell off. I will need to get used to this for future competitions. So I was down 11 points!!! I tried really hard on the third boulder which was quite tricky and had lots of slopers but couldn’t top it. The last route looked really hard and I was really excited to climb it. I managed to get just over the ledge and was pleased with myself. Overall I came 7th, I could have done better but I lost a lot of points on my second route. It was a great day and good to watch the super finals on the red on the comp wall. I can’t wait to try it.

Why doesn't anybody comment on my blog??? Does anyone read my blog????!!!

Session with Neil Gresham

Angus and I had our next session with Neil. I was really looking forward to it but I was also tired. I should have listened to Robbie and had a rest on Sunday because I had been training for three days in a row.
We started with bouldering to warm up, doing V1,V2, V3 V4, I also had a few more attempts at my blue boulder problem. I managed to get to the reachy move and Neil, Simon and Robbie tried to work out how I could make the next move. The best way was using my heel on the volume to rock over, I managed to touch the hold but not hold it .I will do it next time.
Angus did some amazing bouldering, I think he has velcro on his hands.
Neil told us he was doing an endurance session with us. We started with pull ups on the fingerboards, 10 pull ups and then Angus had a go and then my turn. We did this for 3 minutes. We then bouldered on the 45 degree wall doing a hard stick game for 1 minute taking turns, four times. My arms were very tired. We did lots of other endurance work and then cooled down by jogging and sprinting and then doing sit ups and press ups. Angus and I were wiped out. Neil gave us a talk about the pressure of competitions and to enjoy the competition in Imst. I wished Neil lived nearer Edinburgh so that we could do this more often.

Session with Robbie

Today I had a session leading with Robbie. I started by warming up. This involved running up and down 5 flights of stairs at Ratho. Then I did my mobility and stretching meaning I had to stretch my muscles and loosen them off afterwards. I was then all warmed up and ready to climb! The first lead climb we did was the green 6c and although I flashed it, I found the top part quite hard. The next one was the grey 7a but I didn’t manage to get it because it had some of the biggest moves I had ever seen in my life! I’d have needed arms like a monkey to reach them. We moved on to the blue 7b. I got half way up. This was a 6c+ at the half way point. I had a rest on the rope because the next part of it was a 7b so I planned it again. I managed to climb two clips above half way. I was pleased that I did a 6c+ lead! We then moved onto hard boulder problems and I tried the blue V4 (my project problem). I managed to get over half way but there was a huge move into an undercut. I just needed to go for it. I made a big effort. I touched the next hold and managed to stay on the wall. In between my attempts on the blue Robbie tried his pink V10. He got really high up and I thought how can he do that? It was amazing! I really enjoyed Robbie’s session!

Bupa Junior Run

I woke up this morning aching all over especially my hip flexer on my right leg. I was meant to go for a mentoring session with Jonny Stocking at Ratho but instead my mum worked on my leg and hips so that I could run in the Bupa junior run in the afternoon. I had to do this or I would be letting my friend Phoebe down and I also was running to raise money for Diabetes UK. The run started at 2.15. We arrived to do the warm up which was good fun and then the gun went off. We had to run up the hill in Holyrood park and then back down. We paced ourselves well and sprinted from the roundabout. It was great fun. Here is a photo of me and Phoebe at then end with our medals. It's been a good weekend.

YCS Final Round Sat 1st May

Today is the final round of the South Scotland Youth Climbing Series at Dundee. We left early and picked up Irene and Lewis, so that they didn't have to drive as well. I felt very excited but also very nervous. My new shoes had arrived on Tuesday, so I had tried them out at Ratho on Tuesday and Wednesday night and I really like them but everyone said not to wear them for the competition.
We warmed up outside and then started on the first boulder problem which was nice and easy to warm up on. We then did the second boulder problem which was harder. It took me two attempts to get this problem. I decided to put my new shoes on. We then did our first route which was okay. The second route had a lot of slopers and a lot of people didn't get this one. We then did our final boulder problem which Robbie had set and you could tell, it was really tough. I had three attempts and got 55 points. I then only had my final route to climb. It was a a 7a+ so I knew it would be tough. Rachel C did the demo and she came off!!(and she won the leading ladder comp) I had drawn out my route plan earlier and made a few changes when I watched Rachel but I knew I would have to climb it differently because of my height. This route was full of the weirdest holds and slopers, it was all about moving your weight and moving quickly past the bad holds, the problem was there weren't any good holds. I ended up jumping for a really bad sloper and getting 77 points.
At the end of the comp three of us had the same points and so it went on countback and I came 2nd. It was a great day and thanks to Megan and Rachel it was an exciting comp.
I am glad I wore my new shoes.