Ellis Butler-Barker on a training link-up at Dartrock Climbing Centre. Grades are: ~Font 7c+/V10, F7c, F6b+ (Reverse), F7c, F6b+ (Re...), F8a, F6a+ (Re...).
This was going to be used in Ellis's South West Film Festival Movie but was a bit too long so decided it upload as a throw-away clip.
**No resting in the groove just before the 8a for training purposes**
After the earliest start for a long time, I woke up, got my gear together, missed a few buses and arrived at college just in time to catch the mini bus to the climbing centre where the TNCCA Championships were being held. It soon became clear that being one of the youngest in my school year I was the youngest competitor on the day.
After a long journey we had eventually arrived at the Rock and Rapid Climbing Centre in South Molton. The competition was split into several categories ((Bouldering and Speed Climbing) and (Top-roped routes and Circuit)). As I'm doing training my endurance for a upcoming trip at the moment I decided to do the routes and circuit, I also did the individual lead comp too. It soon became clear that being one of the youngest in my school year I was the youngest competitor, I was competing against people much much older...
I quickly got through the team event and onsighted each route and lapped the 25 move circuit 6 times but then had to stop due to time constraints, luckily the furthest others got was 22 moves which was the middle of hard bouldery section.
Towards the end of the circuit
Photo by: Briony Martin
Then it was time for the lead comp, the first route was graded at F7a and topping this would qualify you for the final route which was F8a. I was first on the route and felt strangely nervous due to some very reachy looking moves which may have been greater than my span! I managed to top it without any trouble in the end. I relaxed for the second route; after about 5 minutes rest I got called up to go first on the second route! Having no time to read the route I set off feeling a little tired but I was soon through half way and with a little bit of screaming and missing three clips along the way (no rule about missing clips) I made it to the top feeling a little pumped! After me several very strong climbers tried the route but none manages to top the route leaving me with 1st place overall.
Qualifying route
Photo by: Briony Martin
After this I had a long journey home, a sleep on the bus and the one arriving home I went for a nice long run. Tomorrow I am going to train at Dartrock for a session on a monster project which I have put together (V9 boulder into 7c, reverse a 6c then a (different) V9 boulder and finish up another 7c)! On Friday and Saturday I will be heading to Anstey's Cove where I am looking forward to possibly trying 'Tuppence' a classic F8b.
Thanks for reading and thanks for everybody involved!
I returned to Portland two days after my ascent of 'Guy Fawkes' (see post below) and had a go on 'My Chemical Romance' and 'The Black Parade' (both Font 8A); I came very close but couldn't quite figure out the last section on this very reach dependant problem. I had also returned to do 'Guy Fawkes' again for some photos.
James got a repeat on 'Guy Fawkes' too.
Latching the crimp after the dyno.
Photo by: James Squire
After the Brean trip being cancelled on Thursday 27th,
due to the person who I was going with picking up an injury the day before the
planned day trip, I was worried that I wasn’t going to get another outdoor
session in before the end of the year. On Friday feeling a little worried about
not being able to finish the year with a cool route/problem I decided to do
some training and went out for a long trial run (with some of the steepest
hills I’ve ever ran up). Later that day I received a text about a possible trip
to Portland on Sunday due to a short window of good weather on the isle. So
obviously I took this opportunity and on 30th December 2012 I was
heading to Dorset for my final session of the year.
After an early start and a journey into Totnes, to meet Dan
and Andy, I was feeling very tired but extremely psyched to try and get the
most out this session, especially because it was my last session of my first
complete year of climbing (I started climbing February/March 2011, so only did
10/11 months in 2011). After a 2.5 hour journey I had finally arrived on the
Isle of Portland for my first time climbing in Dorset. I had originally planned
to try ‘Fighting Torque’ F8a but when we arrived e decided to just boulder (due
to low temperatures and high wind speeds) meaning not too much time would be
spent standing around belaying or spectating.
As we headed towards The Cuttings Boulder field I spotted a
section that I had previously seen in photos, the classic ‘Stompin’ with Bez’
was. I knew that a problem which I have always wanted to do ever since I
started climbing was nearby and maybe worth looking at. This problem is the
very highball font 8a (V11)- ‘Guy Fawkes’, originally climbed by Jim Kimber in ’99
but has had big hold broken off since and was reclimbed by John Gaskins and
then after a few more repeats was given benchmark 8a (v11) and supposedly the hardest established problem in Dorset. ‘Guy Fawkes’ was
the first ‘difficult’ problem that I had heard about as I newbie so has always
been a problem which I was quite keen to attempt when I got the chance to go to
Portland. So we scrambled over the bank and had a look along that wall where
Dan and Andy decided to try ‘Stompin’...’ and I was going to have a few attempts
on ‘Guy...’ to see what it what it was like. To be honest my initial impression
of the problem was that it looked rather hard and pretty high. I think that my
opinion on its difficulty was due to the two awful hand-holds that were in
front of my face when I stood next to the problem.
We decided to get warmed up on a nice looking traverse that
the guidebook appeared to show as V2 but later we found out it was V8 (so not
the most appropriate warm-up).I had a
few attempts on ‘Guy Fawkes’ still feeling a bit cold but thought it felt a bit
hard. I decided to have a flash attempt on ‘Stompin’ with Biz’ but didn’t quite
manage the flash, straight after my attempt Dan found new easier beta though!
Back to ‘Guy Fawkes’ and after figuring out all the moves
but one (which I hadn’t tried) the rain started to pour down on us making some
holds on the problem a little wet, I had a long rest while waiting for the rain
to stop; eventually it did and I started to try the problem again. I brushed
all the holds and thought they were now dry enough to use, this saw me back on
the problem trying it from the start where I fell from the move that I hadn’t
yet tried (a heinous move from a poor side-pull to a horribly polished crimp with
left hand, while on an okay two finger undercut with the left). After around 2
minutes rest I quickly got back on the problem and stuck the move, now all I had
to do was two hard moves and I would be on for the race to the finish. I did
the first hard move... Then moved out comfortably left for the next hold, as I
grabbed the crimp my hand slid straight off and I was now lying on my back on
the floor. My screaming after that was compared to Adam Ondra’s when falling
off of the La Dura Dura Project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stQhEZn4RE0).
After 20 minutes rest I went back on and stuck the move I
had previously fallen from but as I did the first of the easier moves I popped
and again had been spat off this problem.
Feeling a little annoyed I went for a walk, thought about
the problem and went through the sequence over and over again in my head. After
15 minutes I was back and ready to finish this problem! I did a little warm-up
in between spotting Dan on an interesting problem that he was trying- ‘Fire
starter’ V5. I put on my shoes, applied some Liquid Grip, thought through the
sequence one final time and pulled on to the starting holds, into the undercut,
side pull, switch feet, big throw over to the crimper, out left to the next
crimp then high feet, drop-knee and big throw out to another poor edge. Cutting
loose, I managed to hold the swing but didn’t quite catch the hold right and
had caught it as a 2 finger half crimp instead of the 4 finger full crimp which
I was hoping for but somehow pulled through! All I had to do now was remain
calm and composed and climb the V5 section to the top. After a lot of hanging
around and worrying I moved up feeling slightly pumped from hanging around on
the pinch and crimp hesitating whether to move out to the gaston but I soon
went for it and somehow pulled through and matched the soaking wet finish. I
had done it, ‘Guy Fawkes’ Font 8a (V11), my last boulder problem of 2012 and a
very good one at that!
Feeling very pleased I packed up and heading home. The
remaining one day will not be used for climbing (mainly due to a lack of skin)
but I’ll use it to train be going for a run and doing some core training. I’m
very very excited about what awaits me in 2013 and I hope I and everybody has a
great year.
Thank you to strong local climber and photographer Tommy for the photos.
On Thursday 20th I travelled up to Birmingham to stay at my Dad's over ther christmas period and this also gave me the opportunity to train at some different walls too. I arrived at Birmingham New Street train station, got in a taxi and went straight to Redpoint Climbing Centre, on Thursday I had a couple of hours to climb and did some nice font 7b+'s and some endurance training on the roof too.
The following day I was back at 9:00 for a long training session... I took a long time to get completely warmed up and got on a black circuit (font 6b-6c+), onsighted all of these and then got onto the barrell section of the wall and started to work through the problems on this wall. Soon after I had done a few font 7b+'s and some font 7c's. I then realised that there were graded problems on the roof and started to get working on a nice font 8a, I quickly got all the moves done but sadly my skin was hurting too much to go for the full link. So I decided to go for the font 7c+ but was too short to do the moves from the sit start but did it from standing which was maybe soft font 7c+/hard 7c. I attempted to onsight several font 7b+'s but fell from the last couple of moves on almost all of them! I then decided to do some fingerboard and power endurance training, after this I was ruined but did laps on some problems in the roof and the some easy problems to complete the session. After 8 hours of almost non-stop climbing my skin was ruined and my toes was in a lot of pain...
After a day of complete rest I travelled south towards Gloucester to compete in a BMC Leading Ladder round at The Warehouse Climbing Centre. I onsighted up to F7c (including F7c) and thought the F8a was very very hard, much harder than any other F8a's I have tried indoors. I finished off with an extremely pumpy F7b going through a roof and then a journey back to Birmingham.
Just starting the tough F8a at The Warehouse.
Photo by: Justin Barker
I will be having a short session tomorrow and then I'll be heading to Brean Down on Thursday 27th if the weather allows us too where I am hoping to try 'Black Snake Moan' F8a and then 'Brean Topping' F8b.
I have also found a partner who is keen to try some hard Dartmoor trad in the new year, he is very experienced and has lead E8!
On Saturday morning I woke early and headed into Paignton
where I met Andrew (Andy) Haley where we got on a train and headed up to Bristol for the TCA (The
Climbing Academy) Redpoint Bouldering Competition. We had finally arrived at TempleMeads
where we met fellow Base Cubic athlete James Squire and shortly after arrived
at TCA. I was quick to get climbing and started to warm up on some easy
problems; then I got my score-sheet and got going on some of the easier looking
boulder problems. I swiftly completed 18 of the problems and just had a few
tougher ones to do. In the end I finished having topped 21, fell from the last
move on 3 and only reached the third/fourth hold on my remaining which was
extremely hard! After an interesting final the results were announced and I had
finished in third place with James beating me by one hold!
After the comp there was a lengthy journey back to James’
were we had food, watched climbing films and slept to recover for our attempts
at soloing ‘The Prince’ (F8b) the following morning.
Me sending 'Mouldy Rain' V9
Photo by: James Squire
We headed out to Avon Gorge for 11:00 to discover that ‘The
Prince’ was absolutely soaking and not a single section of the wall was dry… So
we headed to an eliminate cave called GollumsCave
(see video below) and did some training there. My plan was to try ‘Mouldy
Banana’s’ (V10) but one of the main holds was soaking; so James did the first
ascent of a nice variation to ‘Mouldy…’ called ‘Mouldy Rain’ (~V9) and I
quickly got the second ascent. After that I did ‘Gollums One-Armer’ (V10), I’m
not certain if I did it off the right hold but the hold I used was the poorer
of the two possibilities, so obviously the harder option. We tried another
(even harder) variation to ‘Mouldy Banana’s’ but the session came to a
premature end due to heavy rain closing in on us.
The approach is down a steep muddy bank, so obviously
reversing this to get back to the car was extremely dangerous in the rain.
After lots of falls and slips we were back at the car drenched and muddy.
I then got on the train and headed back home after a great
weekend climbing.
I am now also supported by Infinity Pro (http://uk.infinitypro.com/).
Just over a month ago I began the Dartrock Youth Open
Bouldering Series which is a fantastic competition where you get four weeks to
complete four boulder problems graded V0-V10. After the first day I had got
stuck into the problems and did 24 of them and two days later I had finished
the 25th problem. Results came out just over a month later and I had
won the first round and had won the adults category too.
1st Ellis Butler-Barker- 264 points
2nd Alex Waterhouse- 223 points
3rd Tom Wright- 221 points
4th Charlie McFazden- 109 points
5th Andy Price- 107 points
6th...
Thursday 29th November I went out to Dartmoor for
a head torch session with Thom Cole and Dan Woolnough, we arrived at Bonehill
where I soon realised that I had left my jacket and hoody in the Dartrock car
park, so I was absolutely freezing! We headed up to ‘The Moor’ - (‘The 2 poor holds on the right of the arete to the big
slopey hold above. A contender for the hardest single move on The Moor’
(description from Javu.co.uk)) and ‘Arkem’ V8/9 which is my favourite problem on Dartmoor, an amazing arête with huge slopers. We started
to warm-up on ‘Warm-up slab’ and soon got to work. After many attempts I had
stuck the sloper but once I had realised it was too late to match and I was
sitting on the pad with a strong feeling of exasperation! I looked at my hands
and I had managed to ruin both my middle and little finger. With a taped up
finger it was clear that I wasn’t going to get it that evening. Meanwhile Dan
was getting very close on ‘Arkem’ and quickly sent it when trying the links.
On the weekend I spent all day Saturday at a freezing
Torbryan Quarry where I had a semi-rest day climbing with Jack, Andy and Tom
Wright. I did some cool routes which included; ‘Bedrock’ (F6b+), ‘Viscious
Delicous’ (F7b), ‘Pebbles’ (F6c) and ‘Little White Lie’ (F7b) plus several
others but they were my favourites.
Sunday; I went outdoors in the morning and found a really
cool project on a roof then had a great session at Dartrock where I started
completing the boulder problems for competition.
After several days rest due to an aching wrist, the day had arrived for the High Sports Plymouth Bouldering Competition. I had planned to arrive at the wall early to ensure a proper warm up and to encourage the younger members of the Dartrock Youth Climbing Team in the junior category whom competed in the morning… After various troubles I arrived at the comp around 30-45 minutes late and jumped straight into the competition qualifiers without warming up.
I set off feeling strangely nervous and quite weak but slowly worked through the problems and was soon attempting the toughest problems. Time went quickly; “30 minutes remaining” was soon announced and I continued to work on the tough ‘fluro pink’ problem which had a move which was bigger than my full span and I struggled greatly to get it done. Shortly after, time was up and I had three problems which I hadn’t yet done, one of which that I probably could’ve got first or second attempt- Leaving me 10/7 points less than I could have been!
I waited anxiously (with a huge amount of doubt) for the four finalists to be announced…
I soon found out that I qualified in second place. After a 15 minute break it was time to get on the problems. Apprehensively I pulled on and made a huge move to a small pinch and somehow, cutting loose along the way, stuck it. Then a few shouldery and powerful moves, I was eyeing up the last hold. Hesitantly I went for the two finger pocket and managed to hold a large swing and top the problem! The second was a horrible problem which featured one horrible move to a slopey rail from the most awful pinch I’ve ever used, sadly I didn’t top this but look forward to trying that next time I go. The final was a cool roof problem on good holds, on my first go I got quite close to sticking the crux which is around 8 moves in from two undercuts to a huge sloper but my span wasn’t large enough to hold the undercut and the sloper, so would’ve had to hold the sloper one handed which didn’t seem possible after climbing through the roof.
I had came second in my first proper senior competition! I was pleased to come second to Tom Newberry. Well done to everybody whom took part and thanks to High Sports Plymouth for running a great comp.
Two days later and I had received an email from Liquid Grip UK about a new sponsorship deal; I am now proud to be sponsored by Liquid Grip and am pleased to represent there company and there amazing innovative product which I would recommend to everybody! Check out their website; http://liquidgrip.co.uk/.
I have recently been watching the following video alot and found it very inspiring; so I thought it may be worth sharing the trailer:
After a late night of watching climbing flicks and preparing
for the trip to Fontainebleau
I woke up in Hackney at 6:00 am having had very little sleep. We (Myself,
Martin and Tom Wright) quickly packed the VW and were soon on route
heading for our first trip to Font’.
We arrived at the campsite at around 14:00 and hurried to
set up the tent in order to have some daylight remaining to squeeze a couple of
hours in at L’Elephant. Arriving at the area for around 16:30 we decided to
jump on something easy to warm up on and get our first taster of ‘bleau
sandstone. The main feature at L’Elephant is a huge boulder called Elephant
(aptly named with its elephant-like features). It is a beautiful boulder with
several low grade problems- Tom went first up ‘Trompe Elephant’ 4c; I followed
with a great degree of difficulty almost dropping the top out! We moved around
the corner to ‘Surplomb Elephant’ 6a+, I still haven’t done it… Next to
‘Surplomb…’ is ‘L’Y’ 6a which I fell off around 3 times before I managed to top
it.
Barre Fixe 7b+
Photo by: Tom Wright
We then moved to the Lepreux boulder where I onsighted a
nice 6a and quickly did ‘Le Lepreux Eliminate’ 7a. We then had a quick play on
a 7b roof which revolved around a painful (but crucial) fist jam but swiftly
moved due to the pain. We searched for some classics and found ‘Figure de
Proue’ 7a which is a giant 8 metre highball slab and decided to skip it. I went
to look around and found a really cool overhanging pocketed wall. After about 5
minutes of working I had topped it- I later learnt that it was ‘Barre Fixe
Assis’ 7b+.
We jumped in the van, drove back to the campsite, ate and
slept looking forward to the day ahead.
Day 2
I woke up fairly early feeling psyched to get back in the
forest; I had a walk into the small town of Nemours to get some food, and then got back
to get ready for the climbing which waited.
We got back to L’Elephant where Tom had ‘Barre Fixe Assis’
to finish off and I was eyeing up ‘Barre Fixe Droite’ 8a to the right
which then links into ‘Barre Fixe’. I got on ‘L’Aiglon de Droite’ 6a and once
again fell off another 6… It did go on the 3rd attempt though. Then
up a really nice 4c and then headed up to Barre Fixe. The sequence was fairly
straight forward and simple but quite difficult to pull off. I had an attempt
from standing and fell from just a few moves from the top, and then started to
work the sit start, I fell from the first few moves several times but it soon
went and I had done it. I’m not sure that it deserves 8a, 7c+ would probably be
more appropriate.
Later that day we headed over to Franchard Cuisiniere. We
had lunch in the car-park and headed to the boulders (getting lost along the
way). The aim- ‘Karma’ 8a+ awaited, I quickly got in this desperate classic and
fell from the first hold; back on and I found some better holds for my feet and
gave a big throw up to the lower sloper and got close but not close enough,
after around 20 attempts it became apparent that I was going to be too short to
reach the higher (and better) right hand sloper, so I gave up feeling rather
annoyed and helpless. Tom was trying a powerful 7a arête called ‘Bizarre
bizarre’ to the right of ‘Karma’ so I did this in a few attempts then moved on
and fell off of another 6a.
Day 3
We had decided that we would go back to Cusiniere and
possibly check out the infamous ‘Duel’, a remarkable 8a slab which for most
people involves finger-nail crimping. We made the trek through the woods and
finally found it and decided to warm-up on some easy slabs in the other area;
we rapidly rushed up several easier problems; ‘Dans la Patisserie’, ‘Sans
Sucre’, ‘Cerise’, ‘Gateau de Noel’ and a very fine 6b+ lay backing arête-
‘Tranche de Lard’.
'Sans Sucre'
Photo by: Martin Wright
After this we headed over to search for ‘Beatle Juice’ 7a+
and ‘Excalibur’ 7a. Beatle Juice is a lovely boulder which a juggy roof to
start and finishes with some crimpy side-pulls, pinches and a then to a sloping
top out; to add to this, it is slightly pumpy too. There were several people
working the problem so I watched and they later talked me through the beta
which was my call to go for the flash attempt, I climbed through the first crux
and felt okay then suddenly got very pumped and dropped it just before setting
up for the final moves. I had a few more attempts on this but felt exhausted
and extremely tired so moved on to try ‘Excalibur’, which I had a few attempts
on but was feeling too tired to even get close.
I walked back up to ‘Duel’ with Tom (a friend from London
whom I met at Anstey’s several weeks back) and we quickly found the beta which
lead us 2/3’s of the way up the wall and just about to set up for the final
move out to the top of the lip. Soon after; it started to get dark so we headed
back to the campsite to rest for Franchard Istatis the next day.
Day 4
Another early morning and I followed the usual morning
routine then headed over to Istatis where I wanted an easy days climbing
because I felt very very tired and a little ill. So I did loads of easy slabs
and a nice 7b+ roof called ‘Divine Decheance’ which many people were trying. I
went looking around for some easy problems to do- Meanwhile Tom Wright was
trying ‘Rataplat’ 7b which he later topped and claimed his first font 7b!
I continued to rush round topping tonnes of 5 and 6 slabs. I
went to bed quite early that evening hoping to feel a little better for the
final day of the trip.
Scoping the top-out...
Photo by: Tom Wright
Day 5
I woke up feeling really psyched and incredibly motivated to
leave Font with some classics ticked and having thoroughly enjoyed my first
climbing trip abroad- This day did everything to ensure that that happened…
We arrived at Bas Cuvier for around 11:30 and headed
straight over to ‘La Marie-Rose’- The first 6a in the world. Sadly I didn’t get
the on sight or the second attempt but did manage to send it on my third try.
I decided to check out a 7c classic named ‘L’Aerodynamite’,
the problem started with a jump to the starting hold which is quite an awful
sloper, then you have to campus to another (and slightly worse) sloper. After a
few tough moves you come to the most horrendous top-out I have ever
experienced! I had quite a few attempts on this but decided not to waste all my
energy on it. I decided to have a go at a 7b+ just to the right called
‘Aerosol’, I set up at the base of the problem and soon had onsighted the problem-
This was my first 7b+ onsight!
Feeling very psyched from the onsight I moved on to the
famous ‘L’Carnage’ 7b+, this was the most painful problem with the awful
condition that my skin was in, the holds on ‘Carnage’ are very polished and
quite difficult to hold, they’re also really difficult to keep your feet on.
After quite a few attempts, I had topped it and now it was time for the sit-
‘L’Carnage Assis’ 7c. This went fairly quickly after the stand start and was a
very enjoyable problem to tick despite the pain of my rapidly diminishing skin.
We then headed over to a slab which I had liked the look of
earlier that day, the slab has three difficult and technical problems on graded
7c+, 8a+ and 7c+. We cleaned up the left hand 7c+ and quickly got onto working
it, after around 20 minutes of working Tom had topped the problem and sent his
first ever 7c+, my attempt after Toms successful ascent saw me repeat the
problem too. I was quite pleased to claim a 7c+ SLAB (probably my weakness) on
my first visit to ‘Bleau.
After this we had a play around on some other problems and
then as daylight slowly faded I felt this huge urge of motivation to do
‘L’Aerodynamite’ and make it my last tick of the trip. The sun started to
quickly disappear and rain started to fall… Everything was against me to do
this problem; I fell from the final move three times within around 10 minutes.
I had my last opportunity to do it- It was now or never. I hit the penultimate
hold and kept slipping from this hold, I fought with everything I had left and
topped the problem! This was the best feeling I’ve had through climbing… It
wasn’t the hardest problem which I’ve done but the chances of success were so
little that when it went I was so pleased. Absolutely amazing!
'L'Aerodynamite' 7c
Photo by: Martin Wright
This was the last problem I did in Fontainebleau, the trip was now over and I
was left feeling really happy and excited to return next Easter. I learnt a lot
from my first trip to the forest and was very sad to now be leaving.
Thanks to Martin and Tom Wright for everything and making
the trip happen.
I've had a fantastic few weeks of outdoor climbing and have done loads of training in preperation for the BLCC's early in October. My training has consisted of mainly endurance and lots of core training ready for the overhanging EICA competition wall.
Saturday 15th; it was an early start for a full day at Anstey's Cove in Torquay, the main aim... 'The Cider Soak' (F8a). Getting there just after 9:00, I thought the conditions were fairly good so decided to do a quick warm up and get on the route but soon realised that it was way too warm to have much of a chance, so decided to get on some easier routes and slabs and wait until around 17:00 for the route to become shaded. I happily belayed my friend on some routes on Ferocity Wall ('Rawhide' (F7a) and 'The Lynch' (F7b+)), then we headed down to Cocytus area where lies some beautiful slabs and some very spaced bolts. I decided to give 'Cocytus' (E2 6a/F7a?) a try and managed onsight the amazing, polished, technical, scary groove in very hot conditions- In my opinion it is the best slab that I have done so far!
After this I went to rest with some strong climbers from London working on 'Just Revenge' (F7c+) on Empire Wall. They also managed to retro flash the crag classic 'Empire of the Sun (Direct)' (F7b+), which looked like a fantastic line; this encouraged me to give the route a try and I look forward to having a flash attempt on the route in the weeks to come. I'm also very keen to try many more routes on this wall which I have always overlooked in previous visits to the crag.
As the time got closer to 17:00, I started to warm up again and was soon back on the route where I fell of around mid way. After 15 minutes rest I was told a new way to do the middle move which was always 50/50 to whether I'd manage to do when attempting the route. This change made a huge difference and I hit the pocket better than ever, I was then approaching the final section of the route and climbed through the part that I'd found most difficult and was ready to take on the final couple of movements which are possibly the easiest 2 moves on the entire route... As I went for the good edge I felt myself fly further away from the hold and realised that I was no longer fighting to top the route. I'd fell 1 move from finishing 'The Cider Soak'! As reality hit me, I realised how close I came to success and how easy it is to blow the last moves on a hard route when your head isn't completly in the right focus zone.
Lots of rest and darkness fell upon us, the day was over and my goal of ticking 'The Cider Soak' was over, only for the remainder of that day.
Sunday 16th; Deep Water Soloing at Berry Head. I'd arranged to meet the people whom I had met at Anstey's for a long day of soling at the DWS mecca; Berry Head. We'd decided to do many routes along the Rainbow Bridge wall and spent 6/7 hours climbing along, up and down the quality rock. After coming very close to falling on several occasions due to no chalk in the chalk bag and I'd managed the 3 star 'Rainbow Bridge' (F7a+), then up another F7a+, down a really scary F6b+ and into another S2/3 F7a along the lip of a roof with a potentially nasty fall with just a slip of the foot or any little mistake would be extremely hazardous.
Then into the spectacular climbing of 'The Cauldron' (F7a+) around the back of the cave onto a scary technical slab and onto the rope bridge. This then led us onto 'The Wave' (F6c) which was definatly the coolest F6 traverse I've ever set eyes on, with amazing jugs and heal hooking sequence all along with a really nice move off of slopers to a jug which forced me to cut loose, it was a really nice line which I'd really love to do again. Then after nearly 6 hours of climbing we went onto 'Gluteas Maximus' (F7a) which is supposed to be done at low tide for very obvious reasons, the water was at knee height and then I took my first DWS fall which was actually quite enjoyable. All but one of us fell of this pitch and this bought the day to a close as daylight diminished.
I would love to give some the tougher of the routes a try now, maybe 'Cutlass' (F8a+) or 'The Barrel Traverse' (F7c). After going in once, I am alot more confident about taking the plunge.
I've had a very enjoyable weekends climbing with nearly 20 hours spent at the crags, thanks to all the people involved: Adam, Stan and everybody from London for the great tour of Berry Head.
At Dartrock on Sunday, I walked in for a training session and was pleasently surprised to find a newly set F8a+. I stood reading the route for a long time before going for an onsight attempt but unfortunatly used a hold wrong on the first and second attempt. I successfully did it clean on my third attempt which I was pleased with as it was my first 8a+.
I have now climbed Font8a and Fr8a+ indoors now and hope to do an Fr8b once one gets set.
Yesterday I competed at the Final of the BMC Leading Ladder in Reading... It was a very early start- waking up at about 4.30; to make it worse I had struggled to get to sleep the night before due to excitment.
I arrived at Reading for around 8.30 and signed in and grabbed my competition t-shirt, looked at the routes and did some bouldering to warm up and jumped on route at around 10ish.
I started on a technical and rather reachy Fr6C, then to the 6B+ then 7A and got each of them onsight/flash. I was eyeing up the moves on the 7B and thought that it looked very technical and pretty fingery for a 7B, I had half an hours rest and jumped on it and pulled through the moves and kept pulling and kept going and I wasn't coming if, soon after I clipped the lower-off and I was on for everything on-sight... All I had to do now was onsight the 7C for the win.
After about an hours rest with 30 minutes until the end I decided to go for the 7C, at this point the route was starting to get busy. With 15 minutes to go, I finally got an oppurtunity to get on route, I climbed most of the route effortlessly until about 3 moves from the top when I fell pulling up slack to make the final clip before the finish. With 5 minutes to go, I got another chance and blew it with two moves to go, I was pretty sure that I would have finished it on my third attempt. Time was up. I finished in third. I later found out that the winner got the 7C on the fifth attempt and second place got the same score as me but beat me on round points.
Overall I had a really enjoyable day and was happy to make the podium in my first national competition(CWIF is international). Well done to everybody who made the final.
On saturday I took part in my first larger competition, it was a great day and extremely nerve-racking morning within the hours prior to the competition.
As it was my first 'big' competition I said to my family "I will be happy with making the top 300; therefore 299th would be great!".
I visited the Climbing Works in the morning to watch some of the British Bouldering team and various other top climbers do some of the problems. I walked in and saw Shauna Coxey sending one of the problems; this was very weird seeing her, as I've watched so many videos of her at the world cup etc.
I then returned to the hotel and relaxed but all that was happening was a rise in my anxiety, as I ate some food and listened to music. I then got a taxi to the Climbing Works and after arriving I quickly started to warm-up and look around to see the do-able problems- As I looked around I believed thatI was only capable of doing two/three problems...
I then found Alex Waterhouse and decided to go around with Alex trying the problems.I got on an easy-ish problem first and flashed it, then I got on a medium difficulty problem and flashed it too; this raised my morale and belief of completing more than two/three problems.
I paced through severalm of the problems before getting on some of the harder one's.
I left the Climbing Works, returned to the hotel and worried that I hadn't achieved my goal of making the top 50. Later that evening I checked the results and came looked at the bottom of the list and I wasn't there, so I scrolled up and found my name sitting next to the number 56; I had came 56th and missed out on 55th by one point...
As we headed towards The Cuttings Boulder field I spotted a
section that I had previously seen in photos, the classic ‘Stompin’ with Bez’
was. I knew that a problem which I have always wanted to do ever since I
started climbing was nearby and maybe worth looking at. This problem is the
very highball font 8a (V11)- ‘Guy Fawkes’, originally climbed by Jim Kimber in ’99
but has had big hold broken off since and was reclimbed by John Gaskins and
then after a few more repeats was given benchmark 8a (v11) and supposedly the hardest established problem in Dorset. ‘Guy Fawkes’ was
the first ‘difficult’ problem that I had heard about as I newbie so has always
been a problem which I was quite keen to attempt when I got the chance to go to
Portland. So we scrambled over the bank and had a look along that wall where
Dan and Andy decided to try ‘Stompin’...’ and I was going to have a few attempts
on ‘Guy...’ to see what it what it was like. To be honest my initial impression
of the problem was that it looked rather hard and pretty high. I think that my
opinion on its difficulty was due to the two awful hand-holds that were in
front of my face when I stood next to the problem.
Feeling a little annoyed I went for a walk, thought about
the problem and went through the sequence over and over again in my head. After
15 minutes I was back and ready to finish this problem! I did a little warm-up
in between spotting Dan on an interesting problem that he was trying- ‘Fire
starter’ V5. I put on my shoes, applied some Liquid Grip, thought through the
sequence one final time and pulled on to the starting holds, into the undercut,
side pull, switch feet, big throw over to the crimper, out left to the next
crimp then high feet, drop-knee and big throw out to another poor edge. Cutting
loose, I managed to hold the swing but didn’t quite catch the hold right and
had caught it as a 2 finger half crimp instead of the 4 finger full crimp which
I was hoping for but somehow pulled through! All I had to do now was remain
calm and composed and climb the V5 section to the top. After a lot of hanging
around and worrying I moved up feeling slightly pumped from hanging around on
the pinch and crimp hesitating whether to move out to the gaston but I soon
went for it and somehow pulled through and matched the soaking wet finish. I
had done it, ‘Guy Fawkes’ Font 8a (V11), my last boulder problem of 2012 and a
very good one at that!
Just over a month ago I began the Dartrock Youth Open
Bouldering Series which is a fantastic competition where you get four weeks to
complete four boulder problems graded V0-V10. After the first day I had got
stuck into the problems and did 24 of them and two days later I had finished
the 25th problem. Results came out just over a month later and I had
won the first round and had won the adults category too. 
Thursday 29th November I went out to Dartmoor for
a head torch session with Thom Cole and Dan Woolnough, we arrived at Bonehill
where I soon realised that I had left my jacket and hoody in the Dartrock car
park, so I was absolutely freezing! We headed up to ‘The Moor’ - (‘The 2 poor holds on the right of the arete to the big
slopey hold above. A contender for the hardest single move on The Moor’
(description from Javu.co.uk)) and ‘Arkem’ V8/9 which is my favourite problem on 
