The start of the season

L'Argentière 2014 marked the beginning of the european youth bouldering season. Although we were there for a serious competition that didn't stop us messing around in water fights, playing intense games of jungle speed and roasting marshmallows at a BBQ. We were a team of 12 attending the event and we gathered at Stansted Airport to begin our journey. We arrived in Lyon to the rain, which was slightly worrying seeing as the comp was on an outdoor wall. After a stormy drive through the Alps we arrived in the chalet in which we were staying. It was amazing; from the Alpine decor to the bar and dart board, the beautiful finish made the stay all the more enjoyable.

The first day was spent wandering around and ended with some team talks, which were a reminder that we were here to compete, as it felt like a holiday! Tuesday rolled around and I woke up early to get to the wall on time to warm up. The weather was nice, the problems looked good and I was psyched to climb. The youth A girls were kind enough to sacrifice 2 hours of sleep to come and support which was much appreciated!

I had 8 problems, 5 attempts on each and 1 hour and a half to top as many as possible in the fewest attempts. It was strange being alone on the mats as I was the only youth B competitor but the team was with me supporting. I started my qualification round feeling quite shaky but I managed 4 flashes so calmed down a bit. I decided to try the dyno. First attempt, I nearly caught it. I actually surprised myself as it was quite far and I'm rubbish at dynos. I used all my attempts together to keep the muscle memory of the movement. The technique worked as on my fifth and last attempt I stuck it! I moved to the bonus and pulled to the next hold. I fell off but I knew the move was possible and could have been done if I had had the opportunity to work it. Just need to get better at flashing dynos! 

One of the problems was being topped by about half of the girls. If I wanted to get a good result I had to start topping things that others weren't. I got on it expecting it to be easy but it was incredibly hard! I fell off the crux a bit distraught by the difficulty. I kind of wasted my attempts by going on the problem when I wasn't ready as I was rushed, and made silly sequence mistakes which turned out to be very costly. On my last attempt I got past the crux but I was so pumped the last move threw me off. At that point I knew that I had no chance of making finals so I had switch my focus to performance rather than result. I didn't top any more problems, but managed to get 7 bonuses, which is better than 20 of the girls. However my 4 tops meant that I only beat 9, and tops are counted before bonuses so my final result was 17th. 

Last year in Laval I came 7th and everybody (including me) had big hopes of me getting into the final seeing as this year I had the advantage of being in the older half of the category. Of course I was disappointed to go down 10 places even with my age advantage, but I was reminded by the team that I climbed well, just didn't get enough tops. However there is still another euro cup and more importantly the euro champs coming up, so I'll train hard for those and hope to improve my result.

It was nice to spend the rest of the day chilling in the sun supporting the team members in the other categories. Everybody did so well and Hamish made finals!! Seeing him compete in the finals the next day was actually inspirational as he stayed so calm throughout. His brilliant efforts put him in 3rd place! A British podium at the first international yesss!

We had an extra day which was spent being loud in a swimming pool and watching Nath at the international tout-à-bloc comp. It was such a fun trip and I really enjoyed it! Thank you so much to the chaperones who kindly taxied us everywhere, Rachel for her words of wisdom before and after the comp, the whole team for being incredibly loud and supportive and Clive for organising the trip.

The only photo I have from the comp… Team GB and CAC hero John Ellison