British Bouldering Champion

Well it finally happened! I am the 2012 British Bouldering Champion, after three years of being so close I was convinced that this one was my nemesis. This year seemed like no exception as I did my middle finger pulley three weeks before! I could climb on it but it would then swell lots and be useless the day after. So three weeks of antag work and occasional pull-ups would be my training for the BBC's.....I wasn't hopeful!
Qualifiers went ok considering the boards we covered in lines of crimps, thankfully nothing you had to really pull of though. And I qualified in joint 2nd for the finals, hoping for some more volumes and slopers.

 here is me on one of the qualifiers. photo Alex Messenger

I was happy to see that it mostly was during our observation period (you get 2minutes to look at each problem before the final starts) and although it took lots of goes, I managed to top all 4 problems (the only person to do the 2nd problem). Relief is most definitely the word!

Me celebrating topping out the 2nd boulder in the final. Photo Alex Messenger

More of Alex's photos here.


Ellie and I are now in Briancon, after having driving for what seemed like an age to get here. First stop is the Lead World Cup which is being held here on Friday and Saturday, followed by 2 weeks of climbing on the real stuff. Watch live at www.ifsc.tv