BMC Open Youth Event Leading - White Spider

After a quick trip to McDonalds we drove to White Spider in Tolworth. When we arrived we registered and I was given number 36. Some of the girls in my category showed me the two qualifying routes. The first one looked doable but the second one was really crimpy and hard. All the walls were really short which gave me an advantage because I get tired on high walls.

We had an hour and a half to warm up after registration so I read the routes for half an hour and started to warm up after I felt happy with the sequence of the routes. I was climbing 6th on the first climb and because it was a short route it didn't take long for my go to come. Two of the British team members climbed before me so I got to watch them and get tips.

It was really hot in the centre so I had to drink plenty of cold water to keep hydrated and because I was on antibiotics for my throat.

The three clips of the first climb were easy. On the fourth clip my foot slipped off and I very nearly came off the wall. I managed to just hold on and clip the fourth clip. I only had one more clip and the lower off to go. I climbed past the fifth clip and was on the last move. The second last hold was bad so I had to make sure I held it properly to move the top hold. I clipped the chain - just. I was relieved to have topped this climb.

We had about half an hour break until the second qualifier. I was second last to climb on this so I got to watch more people. As this climb was crimpy I warmed up on some crimpy bouldering problems so I could get used to the crimps. I had watched some Cat B girls because they had the same route as their first qualifier - none of them topped it.

The first two clips had positive crimps so it was pretty easy to start with. The third clip was the clip where most of the B and C girls fell off because there was a bad hold and you had to swap hands or hold it! I had a plan for this move because I had been reading it most because a lot of people came off there. I managed to do this move - my plan had worked! The next move looked just as hard and I saw some people fall off here as well. I did a power move to this hold and only just got it. I didn't have it enough so I dropped back down a move and did it again making sure I held it higher. The next hold was much better. After this was a sloper to a crimp to a volume - the move to the volume had to be done statically. I completed all three of these moves. On the tip of the volume there was a crimp - I clipped off this and only just moved off to the big shallow pocket. This was difficult to hold because I was a bit tired and this was the move that some of the Cat B girls got through. I tried to move off statically but I couldn't make it to the next hold and fell off. I was really pleased with this because I knew I had qualified for the final.

We had half an hour before isolation started for the final so we quickly nipped out to grab some lunch. We just got back in time for 12:30 but found out isolation didn't start until 1. I went into isolation and did some warm up before going into the arena to read our route. We had the green route at the back of the wall it looked a lot easier than our last qualifier. After 6-mins of observation time all finalists went back to the bouldering area to wait for there turn! As I qualified 1st I was climbing last so I had to wait in isolation for the longest.

After I had tied in it was time for me to climb I was nervous because I knew if I completed this climb I would win. I climbed smoothly up the first three clips up until the volume. The next moves were easier than I thought so I managed those fine. The last moves were the hardest but I managed to complete them and top the climb.

The final climb was the easiest and it would have been better if it had been harder.