Blocfest and New Holds

On the 8th of December was the Castle round of the Blocfest series. This was an absolutely awesome comp! There was such an awesome atmosphere throughout the comp and the whole centre was packed! The Blocs were absolutely awesome with some really interesting and weird movements in. I managed to flash 23 of the 25 problems which I was pretty pleased about. I topped every problem in the end, although two of them required some working meaning I finished with 232 points out of a possible 250. This meant I finished in joint 3rd which I was seriously pleased with. Two comps in two weeks and two podiums, seem to be off to a good start!

For Christmas I got a new set of new holds for my home training wall! I received the Holdz Ripplez Set 8 and they are So awesome!!!! The set has such a good variety of horrible slopey pinches, big slopers, jugs and crimps! The friction is absolutely incredible which left my skin slightly ruined after the amount of climbing I did on them! In all it is a totally sick set which I am so psyched to train on in the future!

Hopefully, as I'm going down to Cornwall again tomorrow, I'll get a chance to go to Helman Tor as I have some serious unfinished business there which needs sorting out!!

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Soloing, Comps, and Illness - Interesting few weeks

 So the day after we went to Roche Rock in Cornwall, we were able to go down to Dodman Point for a few hours on the way back home. There was one route that I was keen to do which I had first seen a few years earlier. It was a 14 metre HVS 5a, a really interesting style too, it was easy face climbing up to a slanting finger crack, this was then followed to another parallel slanting finger crack a couple of feet higher and then a move to a ledge and the finish. It was a really cool little route and my hardest solo to date! I'm psyched to get back to Dodman as there are two little micro routes slightly further down the gully that I really want to try!

Last weekend was my first competition of this season and it was the La Sportiva Party over at the Castle in London. It was a really awesome set with a mixture of delicate slopey slab problems, burly overhanging stuff and technical crimpy things. One thing I did find though was the volume of slabby problems with mantels on them; this is the style of climbing that I am worst at so I didn't do too well on these. I finished with 163 points out of a possible 200, and there was only one problem that I couldn't do as I simply didn't have the required flexibility to get my leg up and rock over. In all I finished second which I was very pleased with, my first ever podium too which was sick!! I also won the La Sportiva bouldering bag because of this, however, as I already have a bouldering bucket, I'm gonna use this as a little bag to carry my climbing stuff in.

More recently (last 4 days) I have been ill at home, which is shit. However, I am so psyched for Saturday and the second round of Blocfest at the Castle!! This should be a sick comp and I'm really looking forward to it!

Thanks for reading