Briancon LWC

As British leading champion I felt I ought to attend at least one of the rounds of the lead world cup. After a quick scan down the IFSC calendar and a bit of research I plucked for Briancon as it is one of the shorter walls on the tour and therefore must be better for a lost boulderer such as myself!

Post BBC’s I found my finger still sore and just over a week to do some emergency circuits, but also fit in as much route setting/coaching as possible as I was going to Europe for three weeks.

Qualifiers started early, the first climber starting at 8:30, thankfully I was out 24^th on the first route giving me a little more time for some more coffee to kick in. The first route was definitely my style on small volumes slopers and pinches and I got pretty high falling of the same move as quite a few others leaving me in 14^th on that route. 

The first route slopey pinches in a roof....heaven!

The 2^nd route looked like it was going to hurt! A line of crimps up to the overhang then a powerful sequence through it. The crimps were smaller than they looked and I had to enter battle mode from the deck (normally reserved for at least 15 moves in!) I got through the bottom wall just, then could enter a more comfortable area of power moves (well for me anyhow) the pump was setting in and I fought through another 6 moves before failing on a long go again move.

bearing down on the 2nd qualifier

elbows about to go up.

Making semi finals had never even crossed my mind, but I finished in joint 21^st and so got to come back the next day for another fight.

In semi finals you have 6 minutes observation time, then back to isolation and come out in reverse order of qualification. The route looked hard which was a good thing since I get pumped at the same height whatever the grade!

The bottom wall was much harder than it looked, as the moves didn’t quite flow, battling between positions. I pulled into the roof pumped out of my mind and thankfully found a knee bar rest where I could take both hands off and try to recover a little. 

After a while I decided I was about as recovered as I was going to get and quested across the powerful sequence across the roof where my pump soon returned with a vengeance I fell moving through the lip too pumped to think clearly and doing the move slightly wrong! I was still pumped an hour later!

A few people fell of just before me and most went only six moves further, which I found really encouraging that I was not too far away from making finals! I finished in 21^st, a little disappointing as its always nice to go up a bit.

I will definitely be doing the lead at the world championships in Paris and maybe Kranj at the end of the year. I may even squeeze some proper training in before hand!