Youth Color Climbing Festival 2014 Day 1

I got up at 6:30 on Saturday ready to get a taxi to the climbing centre. My mum got some food together and because it had been so hot on Thursday and Friday we packed loads of drinks. We were expecting it to be raining in Imst and had brought all our waterproof coats, but not much summer clothing.

Soon the taxi arrived and we were in the centre by 7:45. When we got out the taxi it was freezing and windy so we put all our jackets on and thought that the weather forecast had been right. As I forgot my passport for registration the day before I had to show it today to get my number for the competition. It was a good thing that I remembered it!

Once I had got my number, I went down to the indoor arena to warm up. Ian so I joined in their warm up. It was great to warm up with the GB team! After some mobility we went inside for some easy climbing. I did laps of the bouldering wall. This was much more that I do on my usual warm up before competitions.

Down at the wall it was time for the demos (called forerunners in Austria). As usual the demo people were way too tall - not the size of most group C girls.

I was 17th in line for my first climb which was the yellow route. It looked hard at the bottom, but got easier towards the top. I watched the other climbers attempt the route and borrowed my Dads camera to zoom in and get a better look at some of the holds.

Finally it was my turn to climb. From the floor to the start of the overhang I managed to climb. It was quite hard and made me quite tired. Once I got onto the overhang I manage to do the next two clips, but I was too tired to go on. Even though I tried to move to the next hold, the belayer had taken in the slack too tight so I couldn't move and fell off. I was sad when I came down because I thought that I was going to do it.

My next climb was a blue. It looked easier than the yellow, but not that easy. I was really looking forward to doing this climb because it was my chance to do better than I did on the yellow. I enjoyed the blue climb because I tried my best and got to 4 holds from the top. I think I could have got to the top if I didn't get so tired.

The last climb of the morning was a green and in my opinion the hardest climb of the three. At this time my Dads friends Neil and Daniella arrived to watch the climbing. They just missed the blue climb, but were in time for the green. When I was watching the other climbers everyone seemed to fall off at one hold close to the top. I managed to reach this bit, but it was really bad so I know why a lot of people fell off at that point. I managed to get the hold and move off to the next hold which was a big pocket. Once I got the hold I went to clip and managed to get it in but fell off afterwards because I was tired. This was the end of the morning, we went to have a drink and a snack in the cafe because it was so hot.

Once we finished lunch it was time for the demos for the next three climbs. I wasn't please to find out that the routes the boys did in the morning were my next routes.

The first route I had in the afternoon was the yellow - the other side of the blue I did in the morning. This one didn't look too bad - the easiest so far. When it was my turn I managed to top the route, my first top of the comp. I was really pleased after this climb because it was one of the climbs I thought I would get to the top of an actually did.

My next route was the blue - it looked very crimpy and was one of the tallest of the routes so far. I read it with my Dad using the camera to zoom into the hold as we didn't have any binoculars. Once I had finished reading the route it didn't look as bad as I thought it was. I began the climb and thought I was going to fall off the first move because it was really hard. I didn't fall and managed to get to the start of the overhand. I clipped the clip and then tried to go for one of the minature crimps in the volume, but I couldn't get my fingers in in time so I fell off. I think I did OK on this climb, but maybe could have done a bit better if I wasn't so pumped.

The black was my last of the day and also looked the hardest. It looked doable after I read it with my dad using the camera. When I started the climb the first move was very difficult and I thought I was going to come straight off. Luckily I managed to hold on and clip the first clip. I then carried on with the climb until I got to the volume, I clipped the clip next to it but the move was really hard and the hold was awful and I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, but I just managed it. Once I had done this move I was pretty pumped but managed two more clips and then fell off. I was disappointed with myself because I thought I could have got past that move if I wasn't so tired. I have done moves like that before.

We went back to the apartment and then met up with Neil and Daniella in their hotel. The meal we had in the hotel was really good. Once we had eaten we went back for a reasonably early night.