Blokfest February 2016

On Saturday I went to bloc climbing centre bristol for the Blokfest event. It was raining when we arrived so my dad dropped me off at the entrance with my brother. We filled out the forms and got our  t-shirts. We then had half an hour to warm up.

I used the warm up I learnt in the GB team meeting as it had worked really well before. While people were getting a briefing I was warming up. As soon as the comp started I ran around and did all the easy ones.


After an hour I had completed half of the blocs and was moving on to the harder ones. The blue on the front wall. It looked so fun and really odd. I was excited to try it. I saw people attempt it many ways. One way was feet first to a three way volume, second was dyno to the three way volume and my way was to match to first volume and get a toe clamp on the start holds and push off to the three way volume. It took me a few goes to get to the three way volume but on my 3rd attempt I got it. I then got to the first big horn and tried to reach the second but couldn't reach. I needed to use another technique to get higher.

Another problem I struggled on was the all volumes problem. I managed to get to the last move fine as I am usually not too bad at balancing problems. But the top move was all about heel hooks and pushing with your arms my two biggest weaknesses so this problem didn't work out for me. I tried so hard but I didn't have the skills.

The last problem I struggled most on was number 21. It had a very difficult sit start with two bad holds. I did the first two moves and did a big rock over to a crack made by two slopy crimps. I found the good bit and leant off it. I reached up to the undercut crimp and tried to reach over to the volume but I was standing to low and needed to get a foot up or match the hold. Again it took me a while to figure out the best way but on my last go I got it. I felt really good.


Time was up after this so I went to hand my sheet in and got a score of 212 which I wasn't happy with.

My Dad wanted to go so we put our stuff in the car and waited for the presentations. I was hoping for a podium place. In 3rd place was my friend from boulders Zoë and then I came second! I was happy with this. I won a bottle £20 voucher for rock on and a nice brush.

I really enjoyed the comp; the routes were set really well and fun. But I thought there were too many. It was hard to keep track of which one was which. Loved the prizes and freebies!

When the results were posted I found out I had come 3rd instead of 2nd. This was disappointing.