Youth Bouldering Championships 2015 - Bloc (Bristol)

On Saturday 27th June I went to the Junior British Bouldering Championship and Junior British Bouldering Cup. It was held in Bloc climbing Centre where I boulder sometimes. I came first overall on the day meaning I am Junior British Bouldering Champion 2015 of category C. As I only entered rounds 1 and 3 because I was competing in the YCCF in Imst, I could only get a maximum of 200 points. I got 200 points because I won rounds 1 and 3 but it wasn't quite enough to win the over all series. I missed out on 1st place by two points - I am really gutted. 

I did this blog post differently by making it into a commentary video where my Dad put together a video of all my climbs and I spoke over it. Here it is:

 

Youth Colour Climbing Festival 2015 - Grades

Girls "Pupil" Grades (Girls C):

Route	Colour	Grade
Route 1	Grey	7a
Route 2	Blue	7b+
Route 3	Yellow	7b
Route 4	Purple	7b
Route 5	Blue	7b
Route 6	Yellow	7a
Route 7	Red	7b
Route 8	Green	7c

Below are photos with grades for most of the routes for the YCCF 2015. The routes for all the leading categories have the right grades, but I think the top rope routes are graded all the way to the top of the wall so maybe be grade higher than they should be. There are also some extra routes which were weren't used in the competition - some of which were EYC routes.

Click on the images below to get a larger version:

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Youth Colour Climbing Festival 2015 - Kletterzentrum Imst

Day One - Traveling

I had to wake up early on Thursday to drive to Luton Airport to fly to Zurich for the Youth Colour Climbing competition on the weekend. When we got close to the airport, we Face-timed my coach Simon Rawlinson who was driving up with my friend Gwen and her parents. We tried to see if we could spot their car but they were 5 minutes behind us.

When we arrived at Luton airport we checked in our big bag but then found out that we were not EasyJet speedy boarders so we couldn't have 2 hand luggage bags on the plane. This meant we had six extra bag but they allowed us to check in the extra hand luggage for free anyway.

The flight to Zurich was fine and we met up with Gwen and Simon in Zurich airport and got our hire cars and drove to Imst. When we arrived at the apartment we dumped our bags and drove straight to the climbing centre. The centre was closed, so we went down to the outside wall to look at the routes. The wall looked amazing even though I had already been there before but I couldn't tell which routes were for the comp.

Day Two - Imst

After a lie in on Friday, we had a quick breakfast and got our bags ready and walked down to the climbing centre. It took us a while from Tarrenz and it was really hot so we had dip in the fountain to cool down.

We went down to the indoor climbing arena and warmed up before getting on an easy route. I tried a long blue which finished along the roof. I misjudged the route, it was harder than I thought. I really enjoyed it because there was a lot of heel hooks and because it was mostly upside down. After a few other climbs I tried a yellow 7b+. The route was mostly as I expected but some of the holds were worse than I thought they would be. The start of the route was certainly the hardest because the holds were really shallow and it was hard to find decent positions to clip. It got easier as I got further up the route but I was too pumped to finish the top. I was a bit disappointed after this route because I thought I could flash it. We ended the session and the day by doing one last climb on the big overhang with the GoPro on my back to video the whole centre as I climbed up.

Day Three - First day of YCCF

We drove down to the centre early and went straight down to look at the routes. I didn't have very long to look at my first route because I had to go and warm up before the routes were demoed at 8:45.  I did two laps of the football field and then laps of the traverse wall starting from the vertical well, getting more overhanging as I got warmer.

Route 1 - Grey

I did some mobility with Ian and then Simon made some sequences up for me on the woody. I felt confident after this but then felt more nervous after properly reading my first route. I watched the demos of all the routes as they were all demoed at the same time. But then focused all my effort on Route 1 - Grey.

It started to look easier as I watched other people climb it and a lot of the holds looked better than when I first read it. After climber 129 had climbed I went up the hill with Simon and did a warm up. Simon made up some boulder problems for me to try like he did earlier. I though my warm up was really good. It made me feel more confident because I was really nervous about this route because it was my first one.

When I walked back down the hill to my climb I put my harness and chalk bag on and took my shoes over to the route. I sat in the chair while climber 137 was climbing and tied in. When it was my turn I was very, very nervous and felt like crying at the bottom of the route. I pulled on to the tufas and found them a lot easier that I thought and I did the first four clips pretty easily. The next three clips before the overhang were harder than the first ones even though there a big sloper in the middle. The roof part had a few bad holds towards the start, but I did them slowly and carefully and did it fine. Then I did the last three moves, which were all jugs, really easily. I was really happy to have topped my first route and it gave me confidence for the next one.

Route 6 - Yellow

I had a long break in between each route which was enough time to read them well. My next climb was route 6 - yellow. It had a big banana sloper 3 clips up which I didn't like the look of but I was confident I could do it. I warmed up again for this route - this time by myself and then came down for the route. I was less nervous for this route because I had already topped one and I was in a good mood. I started the route well and climbed efficiently until I got to the sloper where I struggled for a while because I couldn't figure out a way to hold the sloper without feeling like I was going to slip off. I managed to do it eventually by moving my knot over the sloper to stop it pushing me out and getting caught as I rocked over and I got a better feel on the sloper which made me confident about doing the move. I was a bit shaken up after this and was a bit worried about the 4 min time limit so I powered through all the mini slopers up until the roof. I then slowed down for the roof part because it was more difficult and I didn't want to make a mistake. After clipping the first clip in the roof, I was quite pumped but determined to top it. I matched the bottom half of the jug and went right handed to the top of it. I then clipped before moving out to the last few holds before the jug. Feeling pumped at the top hold I jumped and caught it, cutting loose before pulling my feet in and making the clip. I was really, really please to top the route and had already beat my last years score as I only topped one route last year.

Route 5 - Blue

I started to read my third route straight away which was route 5 - blue. It looked much harder than the first two but I still thought that I could top it. The flat part of the blue route looked difficult as there were only small edges and some of the looked pretty bad. I made a good start to this route and all the holds were pretty decent. As I moved up the route the hold were still decent, they were just small but the moves were quite big. I complete the flat part of the climb without too much trouble and go onto the roof. The holds on the roof were deeper than I expected and I did the first two clips in the roof OK, but I was very pumped for the last one. I only just made the second last move almost falling off with pump - I was really happy. I made a big leap for the final move as I knew I couldn't have reached it but I was too pumped to hold it so I came off. I was really, really disappointed after this because I was so close to topping the route and went to have 5 minutes in the shade by Oscar. Ian came to talk to me and explained that I only had to make up 2 points to be in the lead which made me happier. So I went to read my next climb.

Route 4 - Purple

My next climb was route 4 - purple. It looked the hardest route so far as it had a lot of long moves and the route was quite long. It also looked quite pumpy. So I read this route well and had a look through my binoculars at the holds.

I was quite nervous before I started the route. But I was less nervous when I pulled on. When I got to
the third clip I went for a really bad hold and couldn't hold it but I only just managed to hold on with my other hand. I got scared after this but I climbed all the way to the third to last clip easy and clipped it. At this point I was very pumped and the last few holds weren't very good so I tried to clip but I didn't have enough energy so I did one more move to the pinch and tried to go to the second top but I couldn't. I messed around trying to do it. Then I heard something like 'Emily climbing' but I ignored it and carried on climbing. But about 5 seconds after I fell off.

I was disappointed after this route because I really wanted to top it. When I went to read my next route it started to rain so I put my coat on and my family took the bags to the car. I liked the look of the yellow even though it looked really pumpy.

Route 3 - Yellow

I stood under the umbrellas out of the rain before it was my turn. I had to push though the big crowd to get to the char before I tied in. For the first part of the climb I climbed slightly upset but didn't find it that hard. I got 5 holds from the top and started to feel the pump. I was going to try and clip but I new I wouldn't make it so I tried to get the next hold but I didn't even get close so I fell off.

After I came down I was again disappointed but I just wanted to read my next route and climb it.

My final route of the day was route 2 - blue. My GB team mate Hamish had already climbed this route and topped it so I asked him about it. He gave me some great pointers which really helped my confidence for this route.

Route 2 - Blue

I was feeling ready for this route, and the most confident I had felt on any of the routes although I was still a bit nervous.


Excited I started the route. I was surprised at how much easier the start was than was than I had thought and my Dad said I looked good climbing it. When the route started to get steeper the holds for two clips were the same, good jugs. I was enjoying the route. The next part of the route was the hardest part because it was about balance. I did it exactly as I planned and it worked really well. The next hold was the one on the volume which Hamish had said wasn't very good. He was right! I didn't like it either but I managed to clip from it as he had done as well. I move on to the large jug and it was very good. I clipped from this hold and quickly moved on to avoid lots of pump. The rest of the holds were decent. When I got to the second last move I jumped and caught the jug I then did the last move and clipped.

I was very happy after this and also tired so we went back to our apartment after my brother had finished climbing.

Day Four - Second day of YCCF

I woke up later than yesterday today but still got to the centre on time. Instead of looking at the routes first I went straight down to the footy pitch and did my 2 laps with my brother Oscar. We then went over to the indoor wall and started traversing. I did a lot of overhanging stuff.

Route 7 - Red

After warming up I dumped my stuff off by the shade and walked down the hill to the routes. While I was reading the first route they announced that we were only climbing two routes instead of three. I was happy about this because I was quite tired and I can focus more on two routes than three.

I read my first route with Ian while watching the demo's. It was route 7 - red it looked harder than the routes the day before but it did look my style of route.

After climber 128 I went upstairs to warm up. I felt excited and scared but I thought the route looked really fun.

Once I had sat in the chair and tied in I put my shoes on and walked over to the bottom of the wall. I grabbed the start holds and pulled on. I climbed through the flat part of the route slowly and got onto the roof. I was quite pumped on the roof but I managed to clip the first clip. I was then too pumped to clip so I tried to do one more move but I fell.

Route 8 - Green

I thought I did ok on that route, even though I was a bit disappointed because I didn't top it. Simon and Ian both said I should focus on the next route. So after some popcorn I read my next route, route 8 - green. This route looked harder than the red and it finished one clip onto the massive roof. I read this one with Ian as well. The only part I didn't like was the big slopers but apart from that the holds looked ok. I kept eating and drinking whilst I looked at the route until I thought I had read it enough.

I did the same warm up as last climb and felt good about it. I was really nervous but also bouncy as I really wanted to get onto and do it. So I tied in as soon as 137 had gone.

I chalked up and started the route well it was fine up until the first and biggest sloper. I had to do this part very slow but I managed to get past it without feeling as uncomfortable as I thought I would. This made me feel relieved so I finished the flat part of the route fine mainly because most of the holds were crimps! On the roof I did an awkward clip which used a lot of energy so I was very pumped. I couldn't get the third clip in the roof in so I tried to get the next hold but was too pumped to hold it as usual.

I ran up the hill after this as I was so annoyed with my performance. I packed everything up and sat under the shade. Ian and Simon came to speak to me and stopped me being as upset so that I could watch Hamish on his last route.

While I was waiting for the results we caught lizards and tried to find the fattest one. We found one which was quick fat and named him Greg/godzilla.

When the results finally came out I had managed to come 5th. I was very disappointed with this.

It was great comp and despite my disappointment I really enjoyed it. I learnt so much and it was amazing to have my coaches and friends there to help me out and cheer me on.

Thank you to Ian Dunn and Simon Rawlinson for all their help and support over the weekend!

Close to the podium

BMC Sport Climbing Day - At Foxhole Cove

Yesterday I got up early to drive down to the Gower for the BMC "Learn to Sport Climb" course! I met Simon Rawlinson (my coach) in the car park by Foxhole Cove.

We met Simon at 9:00am and he led us down to Foxhole Cove. It was quite a steep route and my Mum struggled to get down it!





When we got down Foxhole Cove it looked quite small but when I got closer I saw it was actually quite big. We put our stuff in a big pile on the floor and lay out the rug. We all sat on a rock and Simon told us the positives and the dangers of sport climbing. The best thing was that the routes will never be reset so you could climb the same route forever.




To start off we went round to the slabs and tried:

• The grade 2 called "A Leopard Cannot Change His Spots"
• The grade 3 called "The Power Of The Leopard Skin Legwarmers"

I really enjoyed both routes but I wanted to try something harder! So I went back around the corner with everyone and Simon taught us how to clean the route after we had climbed it. I already knew a couple of ways from the NICAS level 5 sessions I used to do and from YouTube but Simon's way was much easier and made a lot more sense.

The way he taught us was:

1. Clip a quickdraw into one of the metal hoops at the top of the climb.
2. Clip another quickdraw to your belay loop and then clip the other side to the quickdraw with the rope going through it. You are now safe. Tell your belayer
3. Ask your belayer for a lot of slack and pull plenty of rope up from by your knee, grab a bite of rope and tie an overhand knot on the bite but make sure the bite is quite small.
4. Clip the bite to the quick draw attached to your belay loop.
5. Then untie your original knot. It doesn't matter if you drop the rope once you have untied because it is still attached to you by the overhand knot.
6. Thread the end of the rope through both the metal hoops and tie your original knot back in, the same as you do on the floor.
7. Next unclip and untie the overhand knot and tell your belayer to take in tight.
8. Pull up on the quickdraws and ask your belayer to take in slack again so that you are resting on the rope and not putting pressure on the quickdraws this means you can test your knot without taking off your safety quickdraw. If you are happy that your knot is tied correctly then you can take off all your gear and from the top hoops and ask your belayer to lower you down slowly so that you can take out your gear on the way.

After this I onsighted a 7a called "Marmalade Skies".  I got scared on this climb because it was harder so there was a chance I could fall off and I had never fallen off outside before! But I kept on going because I really wanted to top a 7 on my first day.

For my next climb my dad belayed me and I did another 7a it was named "Joy de Viva". At the start I couldn't tell which one it was because I couldn't see the clips so Simon pointed it out to me and my Dad. The start of the climb I was really confident but I got a bit nervous in the middle as there was a couple of big moves but I managed to top it much more easily than the last 7a! I had to clean the top of this climb but it was really easy apart from taking some of the clips out because it was an overhang. When I got to the second last clip I had to take it out of the bolt
and swing right out over the rock which was scary but fun.

I ate my lunch next so I could have a rest before I tried the 6c and the 7b.

I belayed my brother on "Marmalade Skies" once lunch was over so that I could go first on the 6c "Goose In Lucy".

My Dad belayed me again on the 6c so Simon could take photo's. The start of the 6c was definitely the crux - it was really hard. I got a bit scared on the 3rd or 4th clips because there was a move where you had to trust your feet and twist round to grab a jug but I made it on - I think my 2nd or 3rd attempt. The rest of the climb was all jugs and I had no problems! I think it should be a 6c+ rather than 6c.


A while later I climbed my last climb the 7b through the roof named "Pioneers of the Hypnotic Groove". It looked really fun and I had wanted to try it since we arrived there. The first part was easy and I really enjoyed the clip above the long bar! I got scared at the big move out left to the jug in the big hole it took a few goes and some falling practice but after I came down and had a rest I went back up and did it! I then made it up the rest of the route less scared as I had done the hard bit. I was really pleased when I reached the top but also scared because I had to do the biggest swing in the whole of Foxhole Cove - and I thought the last one was big enough.

I cleaned the top feeling very confident about the cleaning method and then had to take out the rest of the clips which used more effort than I used climbing! When I came to the second last clip I was excited and a bit nervous. But I did it!

This is the video of my swing:

We decided to go back after this climb so we packed up our stuff and climbed back around the hill and met my parents back at the top as we arrived back much before them.

I had a great day out with Simon and my family. Thanks to Simon I know loads about sport climbing now and my Dad can take me climbing outside in the summer whenever we want because he knows how to do all the stuff as well!

Thanks Simon

BMC Youth Climbing Series 2015 - Grand Final

After school on Thursday my brother, parents and I traveled up to Edinburgh, Scotland for the BMC youth climbing series final 2015. Me and my brother had previously qualified for the final a month ago at the Beacon climbing centre in North Wales.

It was a long drive to Edinburgh and we were going at a good speed until our car went into limp mode for the last 2hrs. We arrived at 1:00am so we went straight to sleep.

Friday

I woke up late and had breakfast at McDonald's as it was too late to eat in the hotel. My family and I then went to EICA Ratho (the centre where the comp would be held) for a light session before the comp. It wasn’t a very light session because I ended up trying an 8a I got half way up. When I dropped the rope I fell and it got tangled around my leg which spun me around. I expected it to hurt but it didn’t which was good. We went into Edinburgh for lunch and to do a bit of shopping. When we were shopping for hats we found Chris Hoy's golden post box. This is the second one I have found on my travels.

Saturday

I woke up early and got ready. We were planning on eating in the hotel but it was too busy so we went to McDonalds instead.

We went to the centre and registered, the t-shirts this year were yellow and looked nice. I was excited so I went straight to look at my routes. Because the standard of last years competitors was so high all the routes and boulders were set a lot harder.

Each category was split into two groups X and Y I was in X, this meant I had a different timetable to group Y.

At 10:00 the competition started and I started my first boulder problem. I was really nervous for the first time. When I got to the long move I shook my head and gave up without thinking. This made me really upset so I went off until it was my next turn. I managed to complete the problem on my second attempted but I was annoyed that I had given up on my first go.


Next we had the second boulder. This boulder was really difficult and reachy. I was up first and I fell off the first move because I went the wrong way. I got annoyed and sad and went off crying to my coach Simon. He made me feel better and I followed the sequence on my second go. I got to the fourth top hold. On my third go I messed up the start and didn't get any further. I thought I was doing badly in the competition.

There was a long break before the first route. I moped around the centre feeling sorry for myself until it was time for me to climb. The route was easy and I managed to top it. I felt a bit better because not everyone managed to top it.


It was lunch time but I wasn't hungry but managed to eat part of a panini and some fruit flakes due to the nagging of my parents.


There was another long wait until my third bouldering problem. On my third boulder I was nervous because everyone before me had fallen off. I started the problem well and managed to hold each hold slowly so that I wouldn't come off. There were lots of features which made the problem a lot easier and most of the holds were pretty good. The hardest move was the top, but I went for it and got the top jug. I was very pleased and it made me happier.

There was yet another long wait before route 3 (the hardest) which group X had to climb next. I spent the time reading the route and making sure that I was warm. When it was my go I climbed the first part really well and managed to get to the undercut on the second grey panel. But I made a mess of the next move and didn't quite get it. I was annoyed after this and thought my climbing was awful. Even though I was disappointed with my hardest climb I still got the highest out of my group.

After I had recovered from my disappointment I focused on the route 2. I watched group Y climb this route and they did well so I knew I had to top it to win the competition. I read it really well and knew exactly what to do. When it was my turn, I felt a bit nervous but not as much as I did earlier on the bouldering problems. The start of the climb and just over the roof was easy and pretty much everyone  got to that place. The next two clips I did were harder. I came to a big move and didn't know what to do. I saw a really good crimp feature but I didn't use it because I didn't think we were allowed to use features for hands. So I decided to jump for the sloper and got it fairly easily which I was surprised at because I don't usually jump for holds. The next bit wasn't too bad because all the holds were good and there were good clipping positions. But when I came to the crimp section I was a bit pumped so I shook out. I love crimps so this section of the climb was pretty easy. When I got passed all the crimps I clipped the chain from the third top hold still on the flat wall so I could safely top it before doing the last two moved anyway. I don't feel it is a proper top unless you do all the moves.

I felt awesome and relieved and knew that I had won unless someone in group Y did really well on route 3. I watched the other climbers excitedly but I still got the high point.

I was pleased that I had won for the third year running and I thought the competition was run really well. It was very good that the problems and routes were much harder this year.

I have learnt to not beat myself up after every small mistake. So, hopefully, in the European colours festival I will be better at this.

Thanks to my coach Simon for helping me out mentally in the competition and it was largely thanks to him that Wales came second overall as he coaches the whole of the Boulders team and a lot of the welsh team were from Boulders.

Sunday

We went back to Ratho on Sunday and I was climbing much better than I was on Saturday. I got to the third top hold on route 3 and topped some of the other category's climbs.

GB Team Training Week in Austria and Italy

Day 1

My luggage

On Sunday morning my family and I drove to Burnley as I was going away for a week in Austria with the GB team the following day. We were flying from Manchester which is only an hour away from Burnley. We stayed with some of our friends overnight so that I wouldn't have to wake up so early. 

When we arrived at Manchester Airport we found terminal one and then found a car park. The car park was really expensive as usual. After finally finding a space in the car park we made our way down to departures, to meet the rest of the team.

Our Hotel

The queue was really long and it took a while before we got to the end. I put my suitcase on the scales and it weighed 16.2kg so it wasn't too heavy. Once everyone's bags were through we made our way down to security. As usual my bag was taken to the side and this time it was my lip salve! I might just leave everything in next time because they always seem to have to go through my bag anyway!

Packed car

We flew with EasyJet and I watched films on my iPad for the whole journey. The flight was two hours long but it felt shorter. 

After we arrived in Munich we walked through the tunnel and collected our bags from the conveyer belt. We then went down to the car park and collected the hire cars. We were the last to get our car because we were the slowest walkers!

The drive was about an hour and a half and it was snowing quite heavily so the mountains were white, I tried to take a good photo. I hadn't seen snow for ages!

SNOW!!!!!!

We were the second car to arrive at the hotel so me and Kirsten got our room really quickly. We had a small room with 2 single beds and a wet room shower.

When everyone had unpacked we walked down the road together to an Austrian restaurant. The choices for food was wiener schnitzel or veggie pasta. I had the schnitzel and chips. While we were eating it had been snowing heavily so when we went outside. The snow was deeper than my trainers and everything was white. We had great fun throwing snow balls.

Day 2

Orange juice machine 

Breakfast was a buffet. I had freshly squeezed orange juice which was squeezed by a small machine. I put my cup under it but nothing happened It took me a while to realise that I hadn't put any oranges in the top of the squeezer. . 

We all met downstairs at 10:00 with some money. I followed the team to the supermarket where we were put into groups with older team members so that we would have someone more experienced help us choose food for the week. I was with Hannah and Alex Norton. We each got a cardboard crate and started shopping. I started by getting three bananas and just put them in a bag as I no idea how the machine                                                   worked in German.

                                         
 Soon after shopping we left for Imst... 

We were one of the first cars to arrive at the Imst wall. First we walked through to the climbing shop desk and paid our 5 euros entry fee.

I walked down the stairs to the climbing arena. Ian (one of the GB coaches) did a warm up with us (category C) as we are the smallest and have the least experience. We ran outside and did laps of the skate park until our heart rate was high and we were breathing heavily. The next part of the warm up was mobility and stretching which we did inside the arena. 

I carried on my warm up in the bouldering room with Kirsten and Abi. We started off traversing but had to move walls after our first lap because of another group of tourists came and invaded it.


I climbed with Abi and Kirsten and we got a lot of climbing done in the morning. My favourite route was a pink that Ian pointed out to all the group C's as it might be a good one to try. It started off with big holds and a couple of big moves but nothing too hard. In the middle it had a dyno which Angus (an older team member) had managed to reach. I was determined to reach as I don't like jumping because I don't have very good coordination. I tried this move so many different ways and spent way too long on it. When I found the guts I reached for it and cut loose! I was quite pumped at this point but all the holds were good so I got a lot further than I expected after I struggled with the dyno. I shook out a lot when I found a good hold and eventually I topped it. I felt really pleased that I got this but if it was a comp I would have been timed out so it wouldn't have counted. I took around 8mins and the limit was 4.

Imst outdoor wall

I decided to pack up and head down to the outside wall to climb on the outdoor wall which is what I climbed on at the youth colours competition. 

I had a quick lunch because we didn't have much time to climb outside. Again I climbed with Kirsten and Abi and we got lots of routes done, I even completed an easy one all the way to the top!

I loved the routes at Imst and it was a shame we couldn't stay for longer, but it was going to get really cold really quickly as we could already see the snow from the previous night.

Day 3

Multi-coloured eggs

I was woken up by my alarm at 7:30 and tried to turn it off as I thought it was in my hand, but I only found it wasn't when Kirsten came and did it for me! 

Breakfast was much the same except for these weird boiled eggs which had been dyed different colours.

For training on day 3, we walked down the road to Tivoli climbing centre. The centre was connected to Tivoli stadium. At the desk we had to pay 6 euros for entry to the centre. It was a very tall centre but not very wide. 

Ian talked to everyone when we got in, and he picked a route for each category so that we could practice our route reading skills. C and B had a 7c red route which looked hard. Everyone got a piece of paper to draw our routes so that he could follow our plans as we were climbing.

To improve we got back into our shopping groups Hannah helped me with my plan by pointing out clipping points and shake spots. 

Izzy gave me a belay. I started the climb well, but at this reachy move I wasted too much time figuring out the best way to do it when eventually I did it the way I planned. I passed the move and got to the overhang I was then too pumped to hold one of the crimps and I fell off. I was very disappointed in myself.

I had a break after this so I could think about how to improve as I knew I could climb better. While I was looking at the route Molly came over to give everyone some feedback. She gave me a lot of helpful tips that I would try to use next attempt. I had some more of my lunch before trying the red again so that I would have a good mindset for it.

Kirsten belayed me for my second attempt. I got to the big move fine and tried to do it a different way but I messed around too long trying to do it so I ended up doing the move by jumping. I was even more pumped than on my first go so the next clips were really hard. I fell off one hold higher than my first go because I had found a good shake spot. Again I was disappointed because I thought I was going to get much higher. But I had only done two routes in two hours so I left that route and decided to try some other stuff.

Kirsten, Abi and I took it in turns to belay each other up different routes. At the end of the session we had done about 6 routes.

Day 4 

Lizard

I turned my alarm off at 7:00 and then went back to sleep, until I heard the fire alarm go off! This got me out of bed! I slipped my shoes on and grabbed my phone. I met about 9 other team members outside, everyone else stayed in bed! After about 30 seconds the alarm stopped and we all went back to our rooms. I didn't go back to bed as I knew I would never get back up again.

When we were in Arco and very close to the wall we got lost and had to stop a few times to re-route. While we were doing this Abi spotted a lizard and we took a photo.

When we arrived and saw the wall it looked amazing! It was all outdoors and in quite a small space, but the walls were so high and overhanging it didn't matter. There was two bouldering walls and 6 lead walls. Also it had a zipline that ended by smashing into a tree so I decided not to have a go.

By the time we arrived everybody had started climbing so there wasn't much space for us to go on the overhanging walls. We stared round the back of the overhang and climbed on the featured wall.

After this we went and did the yellow on the overhang wall that went right to the top! It was quite easy up until the roof where it got a bit pumpy and there were a few spiner footholds, but it was really fun.

It was so sunny and it was really nice to be outside. 

The first climb I did after lunch was the green through the roof. I had wanted to do this all day and I was really looking forward to it. The start of the climb was the hardest part because it had a couple of bad holds but the roof was fine - all the holds were good and there were so many good clipping positions. I managed to top it - I was really happy. The green was graded harder than the yellow I climbed earlier but I thought it was easier as the yellow was harder to read whereas the green had a more simple sequence. This was my 6th route and I only got two more routes in before we had to leave.

Ian walked us over to a big building. We then went off in groups to shop. The little town was amazing. It was a tight cobble street only big enough for one car. But the best part was it had loads of ice cream shops and loads of climbing shops! I wish Cardiff was that sunny and warm and sold climbing gear! I brought a wooden hold for my wall and some headbands. We also looked in a few other shops before going to dinner. 

 Ian showed us to the Italian restaurant and after that to the best ice cream parlor on the street. We also had a photo with Mario who works at the parlor, so our team photo could go on the wall. Many famous the world climbing champions had their photo on the wall with him too because world cups and big competitions are often held there.

Day 5

At breakfast I had a massive mug of orange juice because it was the last day. 

We put our stuff in the cars and walked to Tivoli and climbed there for two hours. I did some hard boulders in the session. Jon set them for us. We also made some up ourselves.  

I walked back with the rest of the team after the session and put my climbing kit into my suitcase. I climbed into the back of the car and Sue drove us back to the airport.

At the airport we checked in our car and waited for the rest of the team. After the second car arrived we all went to the bag check-in place and waited there for the other cars. They took a while but when they came we didn't have to queue for long because most people had already checked-in.

We then went to buy some dinner. After the rest of the group got their food we went through security.

The trip was really good fun and it was amazing to climb on the world cup wall in Arco. Arco has got to be one of my favourite walls!