The Youth Open 2012

The time had come to make a point about how hard I’ve been training over the last few months. The Youth Open had arrived, along with a tough competition and weekend. I felt prepared and psyched and luckily recovering fast from the winter cold. 

Day one: Leading.

I was up third up and after a rushed warm up I stepped onto qualifier one; a technical climb with a small overhang at the top, a style perfectly suited to me. I felt calm, composed and psyched. Luke Tilley had demoed our climb effortlessly and being my brother went through the route with me afterwards, telling me to just ‘accept the bad holds’, great, thanks, really useful ;). Working my way up I kept breathing deep and climbing smoothly, staying relaxed. Totally absorbed in the climb I suddenly found myself a few moves from the top. ‘Just keep calm, carry on’. One more move to the top. One more pull. No more oomph . I fell, my fingers millimetres from the last hold. I reached the bottom happy with my performance but I was most pleased with my head. I had proved I could control it, keep its anxiety on a leash.

My second qualifier was up the main wall which was a barrel: an S shape. The climb started off more or less vertical, getting steeper and steeper then near the top reducing back to a vertical. This time, I was 10^th up, I was ready to go and once again psyched. It looked good, steep with good(ish) holds and a massive side wall big enough to bridge all you liked on. I started well, climbing strong and fluent and calm. I was getting into the steeper section of the barrel; I was in full flow but my mind and consequently my sequence missed the clip; I got the next hold, remembered the clip, tried to clip, failed to clip! I got the next hold, try to clip again, but would have fallen off. OK, well let’s try the next hold then, oh no, my arms aren’t that long. New plan, let’s climb down, energy is draining, still can’t clip, lets climb back up again, the clip is still failing me. The clip had won. I had fallen.

I knew it was over. I had made the mistake. I had messed up this important competition. My remaining energy was used up crying, tears pouring down my cheeks. I was angry at the error I made. Irritated because the climb looked so good. Frustrated because I hadn’t found the climbing hard. Cross because I knew I would have topped it. Distraught because I knew the competition was so tight I would loose my place on the GB Team.

Luke, as always, came to the rescue. He sat with me calming me back down, trying to staunch the flow of water falling down my cheeks. He explained the problem and told me solutions and amazingly got me psyched once again. However, being a girl and being, it seems, very emotional; every time the subject was raised a new set of tears would find their way back into my eyes, revealing my distress again.

Because of my determination I couldn’t let this climb slip by, so after the award ceremony, I whipped my harness back on, re-warmed up and stormed up the route. I clipped ‘the clip’ with ease and climbed past with no problem. The cruxy move at the top where I witnessed many climbers come off didn’t stand in my way. I was on a rampage. I was at the last move before long: a big powerful move from a tiny crimp to a massive jug. The pressure to finish the climb wasn’t there: I had proved myself right about th climb being well within my ability and the tears had drained most of my energy. I fell, ‘my fingers millimetres from the last hold.’

Day 2, bouldering. After debating long and hard on Saturday evening I had decided to compete in the first Open Youth bouldering competition.  We had 8 boulder problems to complete in two hours with 5 attempts at each. Then 3 problems with 4 minutes to complete each individual climb for the finals. The climbs looked hard but good. I had put no pressure on myself as I wasn’t too psyched to actually try to get a place on the bouldering team, as, if you know me, I really am not a boulderer. The standard is high,  I took this purely for fun. It turns out I didn’t do too badly considering, finishing 7^th, against Tara Hayes, Molly Thompson-Smith, Gracie Martin, Rachel Carr and Tash Allcock. And Tash only beating me by getting to a bonus hold 3 attempts quicker. This left me just outside a qualifying place. An awesome well done to Gracie as well for getting a place on the bouldering team after a sick effort in the final, finishing 4^th due to count back!!

So that was my weekend. Not really the outcome I was hoping for. I made a costly mistake on a climb and consequently lost my position on the team. Not great, but that wont stop me training, getting psyched and proving myself in July at the next Youth Open. Oh, and don’t worry, I’ll practise remembering to clip too!