First round of the World cup

Off to Austria tommorrow for the first round of the world cup in Hall near Innsbruck, hopefully my arms will be a bit more cooperative and the split in my finger will be ok.

Qualifiers are on Friday, semis and final on Saturday. You should be able to watch online at www.salzlager.at and search around a bit unless your deutsch is better than mine!

CWIF

Competed in the climbing works international festival at the weekend, qualifiers went well finishing joint third and our team living up to its name coming in first, with Jordan getting a perfect score, Dan putting in a fine hungover performance being joint third with me and Leah winning the womens.

The semis didn't go so well :-( seems i'm still struggling a bit with some plague which won't go away! Topped the first problem on my second go and then got past the bonus hold on my first go on the other three but my forearms just didn't want to play, all very frustrating! landed up in 8th place.

Ohh well at least we won the team event, making me a litle bit better off!

Skymasters champion

Won the first Skymasters challenge at the outdoor show in Birmingham. Amazing climbing through 30+ metres of roof and Kalymnos style tufas! Arrived on Saturday with no expectations and no pressure found myself in first place for Sundays final!

Then there was some pressure! Being the last out i knew that people had got close to the end but no one had topped it! My usual route tactic of go go go seemed the order of the day and get into the hands off rest in the tufas to try and recover before a sprint to the end! i have never been so pumped in my life and not fallen off! Pure adrenaline pulled me up the last moves feeling the crowd willing me to the top, i latched the finishing jug and knew i had won, amazing! the last competitor out and the only one to the top. oh and a bit richer to boot!

Check out my pumped forearms!

long time no writing!

Not a lot been going on recently, just a bit of work and some training. Won the last round of the works comp, which i won overall so some nice piece of berghaus gear heading my way!

Made some good progress on a project in Yorkshire very frustrating being dragged around on the end of a shunt, so be good to get on it on a top rope!


Off to the outdoors show in Birmingham this weekend to compete in the Skymasters Challenge which should be a good laugh, 30m of horizontal roof madness, check it out

another fine gritstone day

Finally the nice cold grit days have arrived! thank god for being self employed! Went to the plantation today had a really good first proper session on the ace. Got my hand over the top a few times, don't know why i didn't hold it! but there's something to get excited about. Left is a still from the video footage.

8 ball

Nailed 8 ball today, what an amazing problem! Took a gamble on the weather and found awesome conditions at Gardoms. Check it out! shame they missed the first move!

Works comp etc

Been a bit rubbish at writting recently mostly due to being constantly working and the none stop rain!
Was joint first in the Climbing works bouldering league on friday night, thats 3 out of 3 now, and walked away with the prize money from Percy's special problem which is always a good boost to funds! Good to still be cranking having not been training very much since November! Starting to train for the start of the world cup series starting in April.

Finally got out on some real rock at the weekend coming fustratingly close to 8 ball, just a matter of time now!