1 Weekend: 2 comps and some real rock!

Imagine a giant climbers playground buzzing with good tunes and psyched people. Now set 30 problems covering a huge variety of styles and strengths. Now imagine the problems are harder than you first thought. Give it an IBL style scoring format and informality and bingo! You have the qualifing round of the CWIF 2010.

Theres always a few extroverts! Tom and Ryan stand firm for equality and the re-introduction of bright lycra into the world of climbing - respect!

The Semi's

The finals...

My favourite problem of the comp - i wouldn't of tried it if Neal hadn't suggested it. A few things i picked up from the day. I'm just at the point where i can step onto the climbing continium - i havn't even begun to get good or even understand what "good" is! Style is everything - climbing style that is. Generally the problems felt like wrestling giant lego blocks. Pinches on aretes, twisting and clamping with footholds clearly out of fashion. Brilliant, physical bouldering! But a very definate style - never a case of just pulling (bone-ing) down on small edges - everything felt relatively ergonomic. Interesting. Plus gains were seen - there were at least 3 problems i thought i'd never get that i flashed! a definate sign that i don't do enough (any) indoor bouldering... i mean i've lost touch with whats feasable for me. Also, realising that all our training has been directed towards being able to hold on for longer kinda helps to put things into perspective - if i trained for this kind of thing i'm sure i'd see improvements.

Anyway - big thanks to Smacks, Neal and Naomi for entering us, climbing with us and making us tea!

Sunday - Plas Power had another comp! Jaysus! Another epic feeling 30 problems, this time with much more emphasis on just pulling. the harder the problem the steeper the board and smaller the hold - easy! Caroline finished 2nd in the open senior catagory and was happy enough with that. On the way home from the comp we stopped off at compact wall and squeezed in 3 leads up to 6c before the rain just to get into gear for Siurana!