Blokfest - Westway Climbing Centre, London

This morning we got up early and drove to London to enter the Blokfest bouldering competition at the Westway climbing centre. When we arrived there was a big queue at registration, but eventually we got a t-shirt and score sheet.

I warmed up with my brother Oscar and went straight onto the first problem as it was the easiest. It was a traverse, I have never competed in a competition with a traverse before.

I completed all the problems in the back bay of the centre except for a reachy slab in the corner. When I pulled on I found that my leg couldn't reach the foot hold on the other wall. I kept trying to get my foot to touch the hold but my legs were to short. I was getting more and more pumped as I failed to reach the foot hold, so I tried pushing my foot against the wall and this worked. My foot stayed on the wall and I bumped my other foot up on to the starting holds and pushed for the hold on the volume. I grabbed it. From here it was easy and I topped the slab finishing the back section of the centre!

Problem 20

I moved round to the next bouldering room and tried most of the of the blocs  there. One of these blocs had a giant volume (see picture) and another was half slopers, half crimps. I failed some of these and decided to have a break and go for lunch.

Problem 6

When we came back from lunch I tried the problems I hadn't tried and managed to do them first go. I had my last attempt worth more than one point on problem number 6 and managed to top it easily (see picture).

I only had one problem (2) left and it was only worth one point because I had three attempts before lunch. The climbs seemed a bit easier after lunch and I topped this problem straight away. This meant I had topped every single problem (although not all first time!).

Although the centre was very crowded and it was difficult to move around, the problems were really fun and I really enjoyed the competition.

It was a shame we couldn't stay for the finals and the prize giving, but we had to drive back to Cardiff. I don't know what position I came and I will update this post as soon as I find out!