Scottish Tooling Series grand finale!

Saturday, 14th December

You wouldn't know it from this photo, but the weather turned out to be fairly atrocious on Saturday in Aberdeen. It was more than a gentle breeze: ropes and crash mats had to be tied in place so as not to lose them! Like Anna here, not all of us had outdoor clothing but pulled up our socks, begged other people's supplies, and got on with it! 

Once again, James pulls out the figure fours, many in a row in fact. Nice Jacob's Ladder route thrashing in the wind in the backgorund.

Dry tooling routes are usually set predominantly on resin climbing holds, with a few 'novelty' routes made up of logs, chains and funky holds. At the very last minute the Scottish Tooling Series organisers were given only the outdoor area to set routes in. They did a great job of setting all sorts of imaginative routes, such as this set of chains to hook. Another route consisted of all sorts of bicycle parts linked together. They make for some strenuous moves, particularly as they whirl around in the wind!

After getting a warm drink and some food at the climbing centre, not many ventured outside again, but here's Douglas, post warming up, clocking up some more routes.

Melissa on the Finals route.

Melissa goes to battle with the log.

And the log eventually wins. Nevertheless, a great climb and first place for Melissa in the Junior Girls category, and a well deserved one too.

James made excellent, quick progress up the Finals route, particularly the log section.

Ally makes a stealthy (hard to spot him in this picture!) attempt at the Finals.

Tim on his way on the Finals route.

Tim cruising high on the route.

Tim makes the final few moves and wins first place in the Junior Boys category.

The team relax now that their trial is over and enjoy the adults struggle on their respective routes.

Front row champions: Tim Miller (J17 1st), Andrew Halliday, Sophie F. (J17 2nd), James Mortimer (J17 2nd), Melissa Sleigh (J17 1st), Ally MacGregor (J17 3rd), Douglas Sleigh.  

The Festival of Ice, Kinlochleven

Saturday, 2nd November 2013

Not the greatest of images from this event, but it certainly was an outstanding weekend. Sixty competitors from across the country competed on 15 problems and the competitors ranged from first time dry toolers to the professionals and downright talented. It was a treat to see the mix and, in particular, the finals route which had Andy Turner, Greg Boswell, Steve Johnstone and Harry Holmes. The Festival of Ice was in aid of 'CAC': Climbers Against Cancer and was brilliantly organised with route setting from Karen McIntyre and Kev Shields.  

 

James and Tim got back in to the indoor winter groove and competed in the Junior Male category. Congratulations James for your excellent first place.

The Festival of Ice

Scottish Tooling Series 2: Glenmore Lodge

Sunday, 8th December 2013

'Our' team: Sophie, Melissa, James, Tim, Ally, Emma and Douglas.

Please take heed of the very carefully chosen colours, team: even clothing, hardware and ropes are matched! 

Douglas courageously striking wobbling logs!

Start at the start.

Yey: James' training pays off: after constructing a contraption of ropes under the stairs, following protracted negotiations with his parents, James can now do ten figure fours in a row!

The fully initiated figure fourer.

Melissa completes a stealthy traversing boulder problem. Please note the tentative onlookers.

Serious inter problem team chats.

Even this pup is prepared - plaster on her left ear. Figure fours?

Tim climbing a complicated double board contraption hanging from the ceiling.

Tim still hanging from the contraption. Yup, that's the ceiling. Tim reached further than anyone else on this set up and after having gained full points on all the qualifying problems - great effort Tim.

Not one of 'ours', but a show of the awesome talents of the other categories.

Happy but probably sleepy team. See you next wekend for the Aberdeen grand finals.

 

Scottish Tooling Series 1: GCC

Saturday, 23rd November

 

Although the first comp. in the Scottish Tooling Series was on the 9th November, the Glasgow Climbing Centre event was the first we attended, the start of our tooling season.

Tim tackling a particularly tricky problem - a hanging log section on an overhang. Drilled holes for hooking, and a whole lot of wibbling. 

 

An unanchored log, from which to swing across three self belay D links - as soon as you weight each link it starts descending. This one felt very much like a computer game, but from the inside!

Tim does a 'figure four' on a boulder problem. Figure fours are used when there is no where to put your feet - no foot holds or no wall even. It's a self made leg up, but generally quite an inefficient one! Axes have to be kept as still as possible so that they stay on the hold - easier said than done while trying to hook your knee over your arm.  

Douglas enters his first dry tooling event and learns to hook holds with axes. A surprisingly hard route to get going on. If Douglas brings his hand any further out his axe will slip off the hold. Nevertheless, Douglas reached the top.

Melissa goes to battle with this almighty tree trunk. Having only climbed ice a couple of times indoor, Melissa comes up with a canny solution for the difficult placements that she must make in to (and out of!) the wood: each placement is made with her right hand, making the problem harder than it already was for everyone else! 

James nears the top of the trunk, but there's still more to go.

Most people tip the camera to make a route look steeper than it is...this route is much steeper than it looks! Melissa is using 'Shmools' - a clever little training device for climbing normal indoor climbing holds with an axe shaped handle - leather loops hook the holds.

Sam does a fantastic job as our youngest competitor and his first time ever using axes. Sam may have thought he'd used all his energy and strength early on but seemed so enthused by the whole thing that he kept trying (and succeeding) on routes right until the end.

 

Back to the freezer

On a Wednesday afternoon in the middle of January we ventured back up to the Ice Factor - the indoor ice wall at Kinlochleven that looks very like the inside of a freezer. Thankfully it's bigger! This was in preparation for our Norway trip in the February half term and some of the pupils had been to these ice walls almost a year before. Some of them hadn't held an ice axe since.

What was especially pleasing was to see the development of our gang's skills and knowldege of the sport of climbing. The improvement at ice climbing, having only done it once before for an hour or so a year before, was remarkable. It just goes to show what a few hours of climbing once a week can do and that climbing is climbing regardless of whether it's on indoor holds, on rock or on snow and ice: the skills transfer. That's nothing new and is certainly well researched: Outdoor Education is excellent for cognitive and kinesthetic development but that doesn't make it any less of a pleasure to witness.

 Hand warming or face warming?