Welsh Climbing Championship 2014

First place

Yesterday I got up and went to Boulders for the Welsh Climbing Championships. The car park was almost full when we got there, but we managed to find a space around the back. It was pouring with rain and there was a massive queue to get into Boulders but I passed the queue and found out it was only for registration so I decided to register later.

We went into Pebbles, the Boulders play area, to dump our stuff off. After this I went to look at the routes. My routes looked awesome and it was great to have so many new routes in Boulders. Once I had finished reading the routes I registered for the competition and got my t-shirt.

Warm Up

It took a while for the competition to get start so I warmed up in the bouldering area with my brother Oscar. There were 14 girls in my category (C) and I was climbing first on the first route. I was really happy about this because I don't like to wait around and get nervous.

When it was my turn I was really excited to be the first person to try the route. It was quite easy and I got to the top no trouble.

Route 2

The second route was a little harder but still OK and I got to the top.

After the second I knew there was going to be a long time to wait before we would start the third route. I spent some time reading the third route and then played around in the bouldering area with Sophie and Oscar.

Boulders was as busy as I have ever seen it yesterday. Over 160 competitors turned up each bringing some family members. The atmosphere was awesome and it was really nice to have so many people cheering me on.

The Crowd

My third route (yellow) was probably the most difficult route out of all those I attempted because it had loads of slopers which were really hard to grip.

I managed to get to the first four clips easily. From clip four to five was harder because there was a banana hold in the middle. I moved off the it and climbed to the next to the bananana hold witch was horizontal and slopery. I matched it and shuffled across it to the next sloper/pinch. It was ok and I had come across it before so I managed to move off it to another rubbish sloper but I held it and the rest of the holds were crimps so I topped it!

3rd Route

We next had a lunch break and Joby interviewed me for Boulders. After this we meet with my godparents for lunch at T.G.I Fridays. We always go out in the middle of competitions to relax.

When we came back  I went straight into isolation for the semi finals. We had 8 minutes to read the route. It was the orange opposite the logo wall. I thought it looked OK and was looking forward to it. I was last out as I had qualified in first place.

When I came out I was quite nervous as 9 people had climbed before me and I had been waiting for ages. The first part of the route was OK and then in the  middle there was one small reach but I managed to get past it. The rest of the route was really reachy. I got through all of the reaches except for the last one which I had to go for slower so I didn't slip. I got the hold and went for the top one and was very happy to have done it.

There was a small wait before our judge told us to meet next to the TV. We were shown the route. It was a yellow opposite the roof. We then we found out that other groups were climbing it and we would have to wait some time before we could read it and go into isolation. We had half an hour wait. After two minutes we were called back and Simon told us that our climb had been changed to the yellow next to the roof so we wouldn't have to wait.


We went to read the route and had eight minutes again before going into isolation. I was last up again as I had qualified first. When I went out I was really excited. I got past the first four clips and up to the roof. I stood up on my leg around the corner and felt the mini jug. Once I had this hold it took me a while to figure out how to reach the next hold as my first attempt at going for it didn't work. I finally got it and clipped. I was now on a flat wall. I bridged across the two holds and grabbed the third last hold. It was rubbish and so was the next one but I managed to pop for the top one and hold it. It was awesome to have topped every route in the comp.



I knew I had won because I topped the climb and countbacks were in my favour. I was really happy and spent the time waiting for presentations in the bouldering area with my friends.

In the presentations I got an epic trophy which was made from climbing holds, some offset nuts and a Mad Rock chalk bag. See pictures.

It was a great competition with an amazing turnout. The routes were fun to climb, they had lots of volumes and large holds which I am rubbish at so it gave me a good challenge.

Thanks to Simon and all the route setters for setting such great routes and to Boulders for hosting the competition.

You can find the results here: Results