Extending My Home Climbing Wall

In my bedroom I had a climbing wall which was overhanging by 30deg. This was really good for training at home and I used it a lot. But recently I noticed a lot of wasted wall space that was crying out for some climbing holds. My Dad and I decided to have a go at building a extension to my wall.

Before we did any planning we spoke to my coach Simon as he had built our overhanging wall. He suggested that we build a flat wall on the chimney breast and join it to the existing overhanging wall covering the rest of the alcove. 

Here is how we did it:

Buying materials 

On the Saturday before Christmas I was ill so my Dad went out to B&Q to buy the materials we needed to build the wall they were:

• 2 x plywood (8ft x 4ft) - to bolt holds onto
• 6 x wood planks 2x4 (2.4m) - for frame
• Expansion bolts - to hold the frame on the wall
• T-Nuts 10mm - to fix the holds to the plywood
• Screws (from the garage) - to screw the plywood onto the frame
• Paint (from the garage)
• Sand - to mix with the paint to make surface rough

Putting Frame Up

We didn't start putting up the frame until Monday but we cut the 2 x 4's on Sunday evening to save time on Monday. We woke up late on Monday and started to drill the holes in the wall for the expansion bolts. The holes had to be really big so we had to use a massive and really loud drill. This didn't take too long and we managed to get the expansion bolts in and some of the frame bolted to the wall.

We didn't do anything on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day but on Boxing my Dad went to the rugby at 12 so I put the vertical part of the frame up by myself. When I was doing this three of the holes in the wood didn't line up with the holes in the wall, so I had to make the holes a bit bigger so that the bolts could go in straight. I did this by taking the piece of 2x4 off the wall and used the drill to make the hole bigger. Finally, I managed to get all the bolts in the frame except two which needed to be made shorter so I waited for my dad to come back so he could hacksaw them. By the end of Boxing Day the frame was up except for the cross pieces.

Cutting the plywood

On Saturday we carried two panels of heavy plywood down the stairs so that we could cut them outside. We spent a long time making sure we measured the wood correctly so that we didn't cut it wrong.

We used a computer program called SketchUp to check out measurements which turned out to be wrong. I had mixed up two of the measurements for the lower piece of plywood. Once we were certain we got it right we drew the lines on the plywood for the jigsaw to follow.

The sawing unlike the measuring went really well and both boards fit on the frame well. I did part of the second board because it was a left handed job and my dad is right handed.

Painting the plywood

After the plywood had been cut I painted it two coats of primer/undercoat white paint. Once the undercoat was dry I mixed play sand with emulsion paint and painted it on the wall. The turned out well - it gave the wood a really rough surface which stops the holds from spinning when you put them on.

T-Nuts

The next day we took the boards back outside again to drill the holes for the T-nuts. Before we drilled them we had to draw a grid on the back of the board. The grid had twenty centimetres squares. But when we finished the top board we found out that there weren't enough holes at the edge of the board so we put some more in-between the edge of the grid and the side of the plywood.  This looked much better but we made sure that for the bottom board we drilled closer in from the side. The bottom board did look better because we drilled  ten centimetres in from the side and then drilled twenties for the rest of the grid.

My Dad had already bought 50 T-nuts which was enough for the top board as it was smaller so I took the board into the middle of the garden to hammer the T-nuts in because it was too noisy to do inside. This didn't take long but I couldn't finish both boards because we needed another 75 T-nuts.

Up and Under had run out of T-nuts so we couldn't finish the wall. I wanted to go to Boulders because I hadn't been for a while. At Boulders my Dad asked if they sold any T-nuts and Tym told us that they had some old ones from when they replaced them all in boulders. Tym gave us 100 - this was awesome because it meant we could finish the wall.

Earlier today I screwed in all the remaining T-nuts finishing of the plywood which was ready to be put on the wall.

Putting boards up

This was easy except for some of the holes on the bottom board were blocked by the frame but we drilled holes in the frame underneath the plywood to allow the bolts to go though. To support and keep the plywood in place while we screwed it on, I put some wood and a Mr Men book under it. This worked well and we managed to screw all 50 screw in pretty quickly.

At last the wall was complete. It looks awesome and I built a lot of it myself with a bit of help from my Dad and my brother Oscar.

Blokfest - Castle Climbing Centre London

On Friday night my Dad, my brother Oscar, and me travelled to London for the third round of the Blokfest bouldering competition. We missed the second round in Brighton because we were in Dublin for the Irish Climbing Championships. We stayed at my cousin's house overnight so that we could didn't have to drive very far to get to the Castle climbing centre.

When we woke up on Saturday we drove across London to the climbing centre. We passed Big Ben just as it was striking 8 o'clock!  We got to the climbing centre early to get a parking space so we had breakfast in a café opposite. My breakfast had hash browns and chips!!!

After breakfast we got our stuff from the car and took it into the Castle Climbing Centre. We Registered and got a score sheet. I had loads of time before the comp started so I went round and read the blocs some were OK but a few were hard! My dad listened to the briefing while I was warming up.

Once the briefing was over I started on the top floor and managed to complete all problems apart from one. This meant I had 20 left. My brother and I went round together to save my Dad some hassle. We went down a floor and I demoed some of the under 16 boys routes for Oscar and to warm up for my routes.

The next bay we tried was reachy but I was just tall enough to do them. The first one was easy and I topped it. The second one was OK but there was a reach at the top, I did it fine but my bro couldn't reach the top and he was up there for ages before he finally giving up. There were 2 other climbs on this wall and they were both really easy and I topped them both!

The next level was OK because there were only three climbs on it, one of them was all jugs so I tried that first. The next one was pretty easy too and I topped it. To get down from this climb you had to climb over the top and go through lots of tunnels - this was as much fun as the climb!

Next we went to the mega slab. They looked really easy because they were so slabbed but one of them was really hard. I did them all apart from the hard one which I left until later.

Just behind the slabs was a room with the overhanging climbs. These climbs weren't that hard and I topped them all.

I only had two blocs left to try. Number 20 which was a really difficult roof and Number 22 which was on the mega slab.

I tried the slab first and failed to top it. I didn't think I would top that one at all so I went to try the roof.

On my first go I got to the third from top which was a pyramid volume. On my second and third attempts my foot slipped off the volume of the start hold. I was really sad because I thought I could do really well again like I did in the first attempt. Catrin was there and helped me figure out how to do the move. Before having another go  I decided to try the slab again because there were more points available on the slab as I had only had one attempt.


I failed the slab again twice so this was only worth one point as well but I thought that I could top it so I carried on working the problem. I had loads of attempts before finally topping it. This meant that I had topped all but number 20 and I scored 228.

I spent the rest of the time attempting number 20 on the roof but I only managed to match my first attempt. I handed in my scoresheet at 1:30 and my Dad drove back to Cardiff.

The was round was better than the first round because the problems were more interesting and spread out over the centre.

The Castle Climbing centre was an amazing place - the climbing area was spread over loads of different floors and rooms which I really liked. I can't wait the for next round of Blokfest which is in Bristol (closer to home).

BMC Junior Bouldering Cup 2015 - Round 1 (Derby)

This morning we got up at 6 and went downstairs in the hotel for breakfast, I had hash browns, bacon and milk, After this we got in the car and went to The Climbing Unit for the Junior Bouldering Cup.

I was really excited about this competition because it is my favourite bouldering competition of the year. I had a look at my qualifiers, three looked quite hard but the others looked OK. I registered, got a number 156 and score sheet. We had to wait a while before the competition started so I read the routes some more and warmed up.

The first three routes I did were really easy, they were numbers 4, 3 and 2. I managed to top them all first go. I was happy about this so I moved around to the next bay. There were two more easy climbs here so I attempted them. Number 8 was on the arret and number 7 was on the corner. I also topped these first go.

There were three hard qualifiers left but I decided to go for number 6 first because it was the closest. I tried it, got the bonus and matched the top out of control and fell. I was so annoyed that it didn't count because I was so close.

After this I moved around to number 1. I went straight to the volume from the start hold, slapped it and fell off. I realised I should have gone the other way and put my card in for a second attempt. I knew what I was going to do this time and I was confident. For my second attempt I went to the arret and easily got to the hold on the volume. I got my foot up onto the top of the volume - I couldn't put it on the side wall because of other holds which were in the way. Instead, I put my foot on top of the volume and pulled up to the top. I couldn't quite reach it and then my foot slid off the volume so I fell. I wanted to try again because I knew I could have done it - it was just a foot slip. I was cross that my foot slipped so I had a break before attempting it again. On my last attempt the same thing happened - my foot slipped off the volume. I felt gutted and wished that I could have another go because I knew I could do it.

I moved on to number 5. On my first go on 5 I got to the roof and jumped for the second last hold and missed it. I was annoyed but decided to have another go - this time I managed to hit and almost grabbed it. After another quick break I went to try number 6 again - I only had 2 more attempts on number 6 and on both of them I swung off the top hold so I didn't match it in a controlled way.

My last attempt on number 5 was good - I managed to grab the sloper but fell off because I didn't stick it.

I wasn't pleased with my result but thought that I would qualify. We had 2hrs left until isolation opened so we went to the Toby Carvery for lunch where I had a roast pork bap!

When we got back to the centre I saw that I had qualified 3rd behind Kirsten and Rose. Kirsten managed to top number 1 and Rose got the bonus first go. I was happy to get into the final but was disappointed with my performance so far.

I was looking forward to the final because I always do better in finals than qualifiers. In isolation we waited an hour to climb but then we were told they were 10 minutes behind. Isolation was boring but we found a few fun things to do like playing catch with medicine balls and playing cards.

Finally we were called to look at the problems. I really liked the problems but the first one looked too easy for a final. After the observation period (6 minutes) we went back into isolation. I wait about 20 minuted for my turn on the first problems. I topped the route first go quite quickly - it wasn't too bad.

The second route was much more difficult. My first attempt on the route was good but I didn't manage to get to the disc so I jumped off so I wouldn't waste too much energy on this attempt. On my second attempt I got to the disc and swung up to the bonus. It was a really good hold and I managed to move to the second top from it. I fell into the undercut and went for the top. I topped the route and I was really happy.

After sharing scores with the other competitors I knew that if I topped the next route I had won. I was really determined to do it and thought it was easier than the second. The first part was pretty easy and I managed to get the bonus quickly. I matched the bonus and then unmatched and stuck my foot out onto the side wall. I moved my other foot down a hold and replaced my foot on the side for a hand. This way I could pull on the bonus and chimney to the top. I was really happy when I topped this because I knew I had won.

I watched Kirsten and Rose climb and then my mum asked Rob if I could have my prize because I had an exam the next day and needed to get back home in time to revise and have an early night.

As my prize I got a DMM kit bag, a medal and a certificate.

It was a really good comp. and the routes were interesting especially the qualifiers. I am looking forward to the next round.

Time-lapse video of the Junior Lead Cup 2015 - Round 1

Here is a link to the time-lapse my Dad did of the Junior lead cup. He spent a lot of time cutting out peoples heads and arms that went in front of the camera.

GB team selection

Earlier today I found out that I had been selected for a place in the GB team. I was so pleased when I found this out I had been really hoping for a place in the British team.

See BMC website for announcement.

I don't really know what being on the British team is so I had a browse on the GB team website and found this:

Benefits of being selected to be on a GB Junior team include the following: 

1. This is the first step in representing GB internationally.
2. You will receive a GB Team kit and will have the privilege of being able to wear the GB Team kit at events.
3. You will get free entry into selected climbing walls.
   1. For walls in England and Wales, the Team management will tell you which walls they are. They are also indicated in the BMC Climbing Wall Directory.
   2. For walls in Scotland, the information comes from the MCofS Management Rep and is available on the MCofS website. 
4. Advice on training, nutrition, injury prevention.
5. Advice and National Body (eg BMC and / or MCofS) support for funding from external funding bodies.
6. Some coaching, but this is not the main purpose of Team Management. Team members often have their own coaches and work with them on an individual basis.
7. Some opportunities to compete internationally in order to gain experience at selected events. These will be (i) at events that take place in the UK and (ii) possibly other events where the management feel it is appropriate. In the past, and in respect of the Lead Climbing Team, the Kranj EYC in November has been used for this purpose.

All the details can be found from this document on the BMC website:
GB Junior Bouldering & Climbing Teams’ Philosophy and Selection

BRING IT ON!!!!!