Saturday 18 July 2015

Petzen International Climbing Trophy 2015




Day 1 - Travel 

Half way through the long drive to London Stand-stead airport the traffic got really bad. Google said we were going to arrive 40mins before our flight which was worrying but it managed to reroute quickly so we were there in enough time. My coach Simon and his girlfriend Liz were already there and boarding.

After the short flight to Bratislava we all went down to the car hire place. Originally we were going to hire 2 cars but they offered us a nine seater car instead because they need the car Simon and Liz were getting. We thought it might be a bit squished. It took a while to hire the car so we climbed around on the furniture.

When it was time I walked to the back of the car park and saw a bus bigger than my mums 17 seater. It was massive and it could actually sleep 3 of us in the boot!

I slept for the 1 hour journey to Austria and we stayed in a hotel so we could finish the long journey to Petzen in the morning as it was 2am!

We left for the rest of the journey at 10:00am and stopped off for breakfast in a Euro Spar and then carried on to the camp site.

When we arrived I was very hot and stiff so I wanted to get out as soon as possible. We were given a caravan very close to the lake! Simon and Liz camped next to us.

It was tiny inside my bedroom  and my parents room was also small. However this made the kitchen/living space bigger. I unpacked  and went straight to the lake for a swim. It was cold at first but really nice underneath.


Day 2 - The speed comp

It was really sunny still and the speed comp wasn't until 6 so I had a long lie in. At lunch I went for another swim because it was so hot.

We drove to the centre for half 3 ( the opening of registration ). We passed some beautiful sunflowers.

When I arrived me and Oscar went to register and bagsied a table. I got a pizza-baguette  voucher and a green t-shirt - this went well with my pink shorts! I tried to figure out from the registration sheet what number I was but it didn't say. The official said they were printing them out later. 

Later I got my number ( 714 ) and Liz stuck it on. I then went to warm up with Oscar, and Simon came to help us. We did lots of sprints and fast movement stuff. I then got my shoes on and pulled onto the traverse. I did a few normal slow laps and then some double handed dyno's to finish off. 

I put my jacket on and went to figure out how the timing system worked. Basically, there is a wooden hold with four lights on it that tell you went to start, but it has no sound so you have to watch carefully. Blue is the first light it means the system is working properly. Then there is a silent start count down redyellow then GREEN - that means go! When/if you get to the top you hit a white button which flashes if you hit it. I wasn't worried about this. 

The speed routes weren't the set ones that are used all over the world for most competitions because the Petzen wall is only 10metres which is not high enough for the original speed climb. So they made there own climbs. 2 non-identical short climbs one blue and one red for younger category's and 2 more the same but on a longer wall for the older category's. Because the 2 two routes weren't identical it would only be fair if you climb both because you could argue that one route was easier. 

When you climbed you had to the blue and then straight after move onto the red so that the comp would run quicker quick because there was another category to go after mine.


When number 713 had climbed the blue she moved onto the red and I went over to the blue. I was nervous at the start but I got a high foot and reached my hand onto the highest hold I could reach and watched the countdown.



I was disappointed after I climbed because I thought my time was really slow. But we stayed to see the results because We thought I would be high up the table even if I didn't make the final.

When the results came out I was so happy to see that I was 4th, the last placed finalist!

We went back the camp site to get some rest after this.

Day 3 - Bouldering

I made a video blog of the bouldering competition because it is more fun to make and hopefully is more interesting than reading about it.




Day 4 - Lead

Video blogged about the leading as well. 



I thought the competition was really good, I know I say this every time but this one was not only really well run, but I was able to make new friends there as well. I met Vanda Michalkova from Slovakia. Her English was amazing even though her first language was Slovak-Czech. We made good friends and I hope to stay in touch.