Redpoint birthday bash

To celebrate the fourth birthday of the Redpoint climbing wall in Birmingham I headed over in the snow (in sub zero temps) to have join in the fun competitions.  As always over at redpoint everyone was friendly and it was a great atmosphere, and the tea and cake is always good too.

Now I'm not really a fan of dynoing or speed climbing, but it was nice to join in and give them a go, especially as the dyno compeition was on the stalagtite and therefore on belay with no chance of a dodgy landing.

Getting ready to power up

Boom, i managed to stick the hold in the first round but couldn't match the winning 4.3m dyno of Will Smith!

I loved giving the indoor dry tooling ago with the fig fours, a great workout for the forearms and quite balancy - next time i have an ice climbing trip planned these will definitely feature in my training!

Fig four route

The best part of the day was the leading competitions, and although I was a bit dissapointed at barn-dooring off the womens final route (although I still came first) I was pleased with touching the last hold on the mens final route (which made me third).  The route went up a panel to the roof and across the roof via a bridge and couple of stalagtites, the features which make redpoint one of my favourite places to go indoor climbing!

Moving onto the bridge

Past a tricky clip and to move between stalagtites

Couldn't avoid a photo with me pulling a strange face, but in my defence i was pretty pumped at this stage!

Momentarily on the last hold, I thought I had this until...

Popped off, but I'm still smiling :) Great fun

I'm just hoping all the winter indoor training is going to translate onto the rock this year... Three weeks until a big trip to El chorro

Thanks to Matt Todd for providing the photos from the day.

Why start a climbing blog?

 

 

Bouldering at the Roaches, November 2011



Perhaps its best to start the blog with an explanation of why I chose to set up a blog about climbing.  As outlined in my profile, I'm passionate about climbing.  Whether it is bouldering, trad climbing, deep water soloing (DWS), sport climbing, indoor climing or ice climbing.
 

   

DWS in Thailand 2008



  

Ice climbing in Rukjan, Norway 2010

Furthermore I am motivated to introduce others to the sport, and to help and mentor people with their own personal goals within climbing.  Climbing means different things to each individual, with different preferences for forms of climbing.  
 

Newly bolted route, unamed, 7b
Koh Phi Phi, Thailand

  

Personally I am currently focused primarlily on training to improve my sport climbing grade.  I have climbed for a few years now, but over the past couple of years I have become very motivated and have started cross-training by including weekly gym sessions in additional to my normal weekly indoor training.  The cross-training has aided my sport grade to increase to around 7b/7c, which has simply increased my appetite to train harder and smash higher grades.  My next goal is to climb 8a, and with a new coach and training ideas, and more climbing trips planned I want to record the next chapter of my journey to climb 8a(and beyond).

 





 

Leading ladder final 2009, i gained a third position in the

 recreational category. In 2011 I came first in the same category