Weekend of the 15th & 16th October 2011 was host to the British Lead Climbing Championships (BLCCs), which was held at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena. Here follows the journey of one climber, Karen Varga, as she made her way through the event :)
First up was the 1st qualifier route! The climbing order is randomly generated, and as luck would not have it, I was first. When my partner told me this my nerves just hit the roof and I really started panicking. The qualifier routes are done "flash" style, meaning that you get to watch the other girls climbing the route. Through watching others climb a route you really learn so much about the route, where the tricky bits are, where best make the clips from, where there's a good grip to shake out on etc. So yip, obviously with climbing first you don't get that benefit! It also means you climb very early, and I wasn't ready for that and wasn't warmed up very well. But hey ho, it turned out alright in the end and I managed to top the route (that means you get to the top and you clip the final quickdraw). However it wasn't a super hard route and 8 out of 13 girls topped it, so the pressure was on for the 2nd qualifier, which was definitely the harder and more technical of the two.
Climbing the first qualifer route
In a way I was slightly lucky because since I was first on the 1st route, I only climbed 8th on the 2nd. Of the 7 before me, one had topped and another had slapped the last hold. The others had fell off at various heights below that. So I knew I would need to get to the top to guarantee me a place in the finals. I felt nervous but fairly confident for the route. However half way up I very nearly botched it!! I faffed around on a hand match on a small crimper grip ... the problem was my finger tips were totally numb and I couldn't feel anything (it was chilly!). In my head I just thought "Oh my gosh I can't believe I'm going to fall off at this move". I then got control of my mind and just shouted at myself "Come on Karen, just grab for the next grip". I literally snatched for it and held it, managed to move my feet somehow and tenously went up for the next grip. Somehow managed to stick that and got my foot up, looked up and the next grip was a large-ish one where I knew I would be able to shake out. I snatched for it, stuck it ... and *breathe*. I was totally pumped and my fingers were numb, but thanks to the decent grip I managed to hang there for a while and shake out and get some feeling back into my fingertips. I then continued up the route and got to the final grip, which I stuck but I didn't have any juice left in my arms to clip the final quickdraw.
Climbing the 2nd qualifier route
However that was good enough to put me in 3rd place for the finals! (only 6 go through to the finals). But the competition was very close, with the field only being separated by micro points (the difference between only touching a grip (point -), actually holding it for a second or two (point full), or moving off it towards another grip (point +)).
The final route is climbed "onsight", so you don't get to watch anyone else climb it. All the climbers go into isolation, they then set the route, you all come out and get 6 minutes to view the route, and you then go back into isolation until its your time to climb. The final route wasn't too technical, but it was steep with big moves, so more of an endurance route really. I think I climbed well, there were some bits where I really had to keep shouting at myself to stay calm, keep moving, focus, shake, don't panic :) 1st place girl topped the route and I must say, she was that little notch above the rest of us (she is also the reigning British Bouldering Champ so she's very strong!). 2nd place girl got 42 points, she was last years winner. 3rd girl got 41 points, and then I got 41- points :( so it was super close, and again I missed 3rd place by a micro point!
Climbing the final route
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