Scottish Youth Climbing Championships 2015 (Issy)

Qualifier 2

Ratho hosted the SYCCs this year, and I anticipated freezing temperatures! I arrived at the wall on the morning of the comp with plenty of time to warm up, and read my first route. It looked powerful and pumpy, however I thought I could top it. When I came to climbing the route, approaching the final crux I wasn't pumped at all. I climbed across the small roof section, and was approaching the last hold! I thought I was going to top the route, however my foot violently popped off a foothold and I came off suddenly! I was annoyed with myself, however I was still happy as I was in 2nd place after the route. I think this climb was probably one of my only competition performances which I had been truly happy with- I didn't make any silly route reading errors or let my nerves affect my performance for once!
I thought the second route was an easier climb up until the point where I fell off, however I came off as I hadn't route read correctly and just did not know what to do. I was nearly last on the first route, which meant that I was near the beginning of the second route. Due to the fact that there was no break before the qualifiers, I was hugely unprepared for the route. I didn't realise how soon I was to be climbing, and did the fastest warm up ever- just after warming down after my first qualifier! Therefore, when I approached the crux, I had no idea how to do the move. I attempted it it with my foot far to low- in retrospect it was an obvious mistake. however I qualified for finals in 2nd place, despite my mistake on Q2.

The Final Route

When we were called out for observation, I saw that our final route was girls C qualifier 2, and junior girls qualifier 1. I thought the route looked highly top-able, if a bit pumpy. I came out to climb, and went through the sequence again. It was fairly straightforward. I climbed up to the roof easily, and was not pumped at all as I climbed through the roof, and I found that all the holds were positive. I topped the climb easily, and found out that Pippa had also topped the route. Kitty was to climb last, and she topped it also. This meant that countback was used to split us. I was hugely disappointed! I was hoping for a challenging final route, but ours was far too easy.
Nevertheless, I was happy with second place. The comp was really fun, and I am looking forward to the BLCCs coming up!

Topping the final!