GB Junior Lead Team Training in Austria April 2015 (Issy)

The Imst Outdoor Wall

In April I travelled to Austria for the GB Junior Lead Team training camp. On the first day, we left from Heathrow airport and met the rest of the team at Munich airport. From Munich, we travelled to Innsbruck which is where we were staying. On the second day we travelled to Imst to climb at both the indoor and outdoor walls. The indoor was very steep and I really enjoyed trying some harder routes! However the outdoor wall was the most impressive by far! It was much higher than anything I had ever climbed on before, and it was a great experience to be able to climb all the way through the roof and up the headwall! The routes at Imst were great, and I had a fun day!

Climbing at Tivoli Wall

On the third day, we visited the Tivoli wall, which was only a short walk from out hotel. This was my favourite wall! The angles were far more extreme than anything I had ever climbed on before! Each category was given a route, and were told to study the route and draw route plans. This was great practice for comps. Youth B and C girls were given a red 7c route which looked hard and steep but toppable. When it was my turn to climb, I climbed up most of the route without many issues, however eventually I pumped out and fell off a big move to the arete. Despite falling when my aim was to top the route, I was happy with my effort as I had reached the joint-highest point. For the rest of the day, I tried some more routes- overall it was a great day!
On Thursday we visited the outdoor wall in Arco, Italy. The wall was very impressive, and there were some very hard routes set! My greatest achievement of the day was flashing a hard and pumpy 7b as the wall was very overhanging! I also attempted a 7c and was happy to climb quite a way up the route! I pumped out on a big move about two thirds of the way up. I really enjoyed the climbing in Arco, and the ice cream was also very memorable!
Finally, on the last day of our trip we visited Tivoli wall again. I tried a couple of routes before it was time to leave. I had a great experience and would like to thank the Team Management for a great trip!

Climbing the 7c at Tivoli Wall