EYBC L'Argentiere, France / Round 3 British Junior Boulder Championship, London

On my return from Spain, on 18th July, I had a day to re-pack and organise before I headed out with the GB Junior Boulder Team to L'Argentiere in France for an European Youth Cup. I enjoyed this trip, although I was a little disappointed with my result. I climbed well in the qualifiers and topped four problems, but then I failed on each of the next four on the very last move! This was very frustrating, and as I only topped four I did not manage to make finals. I am determined to do better at the next EYC, during August, in Austria. Here is a link to the BMC report of the event:

BMC L'Argentiere Report

On our return to London I was picked up by my family at Stansted airport, as I was competing at Round 3 of the British Junior Bouldering Championship, at the Arch Climbing wall, London, on 27th July. I was delighted to climb well at this competition, being the only climber (including the older category, Junior Boys) to top all 8 qualifiers. I also climbed strongly in the Finals, topping 2 out of 3 problems, and was delighted to win both this round and the overall Championship.

Youth A Boys - Championship Podium

After the competition finished we drove to Oxford to stay with my younger brother's Godparents. His Godfather, Anthony Reid, is a motor racing driver and I got the chance to sit in an Aston Martin Vantage

You can read about Anthony here http://www.anthonyreid.com/

Spain - July 2014

At the beginning of July I headed to La Manga, Spain for a family holiday. Although this was not to be a climbing holiday I knew I had to keep training, as I had an European Youth Boulder Cup competition on my return. I was lucky to be able to train at a local boulder wall, in La Union, owned by Club de Montana, Roller Masters, which I really appreciated. It was a great training wall, although very hot in the summer weather!

Club de Montana, Roller Masters

The Boulder wall, La Union, Spain

Working hard!

I also managed to climb at an indoor Lead wall in Murcia and do some outdoor climbing at a crag at Mula. As it was so hot during the day we climbed in the evening and looked for routes that were in the shade. Although I only had a short time climbing at Mula I managed to tick Sogun 8a, Sucina 8a+, and a bouldery climb through the roof of a cave, Lula 8a.

Here I am climbing at Mula -

Climbing Sogun, 8a

Sucina, 8a+

Mula is a winter crag, but I'm pleased that I braved the heat as the climbing was fun. I would like to return sometime to this area, during the winter, and climb at another local crag, Leyva.

EYCC 2014, EICA / Demoing at YCS Final, EICA / Fun at Dumbarton, June 2014

I have had a very busy summer of climbing, competitions, and fun. During the weekend of 14th/15th June I competed at the European Youth Climbing Championship, for Youth A boys, where I was delighted to make finals and finish in 8th place. I include the link to a BMC film of this event.

ifsc-european-youth-championships-2014

On the 28th June I was busy climbing again, this time demoing the routes for Youth A boys, at the British Youth Climbing Series Final, at EICA Ratho. The GB Junior Climbing Team were asked to volunteer at this event and demonstrate the routes. It was great fun and a privilege to demo for this category and the BMC organisers.

The following week was the start of my school holidays and I had lots of climbing friends from the GB team to stay, Molly Thomson-Smith, Jim Pope, Pete Dawson and Angus Davidson. We had great fun climbing during the day and watching scary movies at night. We climbed at Dumbarton Rock and I was delighted to climb my first 8A boulders (Pongo SS and Sabotage.)