BMC Youth Climbing Series 2016 – Round 1.

On 23rd January I competed in the first round of the BMC Youth Climbing Series (YCS) for 2016 at the Nottingham Climbing Centre. It was really fun!

Arriving at the Nottingham Climbing Centre

First I looked at the routes because I was really anxious about them. I was disappointed because they looked hard and I am not confident in leading. Next I Looked at the boulders and was really happy because they looked better and I thought I could do them.

Afterwards I did a brief warm up of skipping then mobilization and easy climbing with some other friends who were also competing. After the briefing we did a group warm up which was run by some older GB team members. Secondly I did some auto belays to prepare for the first climb which, to my disappointment, were routes.

Unfortunately I was second in the running order and the person before me had an unlucky slip so I got no extra beta even though it was demoed, however the person doing the demo was taller than me. I tried hard but fell after doing the wrong hand sequence. I was disappointed because other people in the category got further than I did. On the second route I first up but was really determined to do it and get back into the competition. On the hardest move I managed to stand up really high and got past it without having too much trouble. Only one other person managed to do the climb so it gave me a bit more confidence.

I was last up on the first boulder problem and managed to get a lot of beta from the other competitors that went before me.

I flashed it without much difficulty and moved on to look at the second climb which looked really reachy and hard.

Then we had the lunch break and I had fun with my friends that were in the other categories. With my lunch I had a berry smoothie which was delicious and gave me energy.

For boulder two I got onto the climb thinking I would do it by jumping on a really big move most of the other girls in my category could just reach, but when I tried the move I realised it was much further away than I thought and had to try a different method which worked. I still flashed the climb and was really happy about it.

Boulder three I was really excited about because if I did it I would have flashed all three boulders. I got on the climb with a lot of beta because I had some friends in the boys category who had already done it and told me what they did. I messed up my hand sequence half way through but managed to get it back and still flashed the climb and that made me even happier.

After a short break we went onto route three which we were doing at the same times as the boys in our age category because we both had that climb left to do. After watching lots of people fall off on a really dynamic move I was really worried but watched some of my friends get past the move which gave me some confidence that I may be able to do it. When it finally came to my turn only one person had done the climb and one person had got to the second-to-last hold so I didn’t have high hopes for it. The first section of the climb was not a problem at all an then I got to the really big dynamic move that I’d seen loads of people fall off on before me.

I just jumped with all my might and managed to catch the hold! Having thought I’d got past a lot of the difficulty I relaxed and went for the next move which, to my horror, was horrible and involved a really nasty heel hook and a really scary swing away from my clip. I was really pumped at this point and terrified of having a big fall so I panicked and jumped for the next hold and fell off. In hindsight I should have done this move differently.

Even though I could have done this climb better I was really happy with how I’d done and was excited to hear the results. When the results were announced I found I was third which I was really happy about considering I was the youngest and shortest girl in the category and didn’t really expect to place.